Tennis tours suspend play until June 7, eliminating clay-court circuit.

LONDON -- The ATP and WTA have jointly announced Wednesday that the suspension of play on both tours has been extended to June 7, a decision that eliminates the entire clay-court swing through Europe. The decision also applies to the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour. In addition, the ATP and WTA world rankings will be frozen until further notice. "The challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to professional tennis demand greater collaboration than ever from everyone in the tennis community in order for the sport to move forward collectively in the best interest of players, tournaments and fans," the tours wrote in a joint statement. "We are assessing all options related to preserving and maximising the tennis calendar based on various return dates for the Tours, which remains an unknown at this time." All told, some 30 main tour ATP and WTA events will have gone unplayed if the tour resumes on the new date with the first of the grass-court tuneup events. The most significant tournaments to be canceled under the new start date are the combined (ATP and WTA) top-tier events -- and French Open tuneups -

in Madrid and Rome. Initially, the tours were suspended until late April (ATP) and early May (WTA). Now, four of the tours' premier sub-Slam events will not be held this year, barring...