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Wimbledon canceled due to Covid-19 pandemic

The All England Tennis Club held a board meeting on Wednesday and decided to cancel the 2020 Wimbledon tournament.

General view inside Centre Court in the Men’s Singles final between Roger Federer of Switzerland and Novak Djokovic of Serbia during Day thirteen of The Championships - Wimbledon 2019 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 14, 2019 in London, England. Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

UPDATE: The All England Club announced on Wednesday that Wimbledon is cancelled.

Wimbledon organizers are going to cancel the 2020 tournament due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the German Tennis Federation Vice President Dirk Hordorff. The organizing group is scheduling a Wednesday board meeting at which point we will probably hear an official cancellation.

Numerous sports organizer are considering ways to host events behind closed doors without fans to get the ball rolling. Television money is huge for these events and while the pandemic is the most important things, hundreds of millions or billions is creating some incentive for organizers to try and host these events.

However, the All England Tennis Club does not want to play behind closed doors, accord to Hordorff, “and postponement was not without significant risk and difficulty.”

Rafael Nadal was a heavy favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook, sitting at +105 to win Wimbledon’s men’s tournament. The men’s side was viewed as a three-horse race between Nada, Novak Djokovic (+220), and Dominic Thiem (+300). Simona Halep was the favorite (+450) at DraftKings Sportsbook to win Wimbledon’s women’s tournament. She was followed by Ashleigh Barty (+800), and Kiki Bartens (+100).