By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, July 21, 2022

 

The ATP has cancelled the China swing due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and added six single-year tournaments to fill schedule holes.

Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve

Coronavirus continues to reconfigure the tennis calendar.

The ATP has cancelled the 2022 China swing—Rolex Shanghai Masters, China Open (Beijing), Chengdu Open, and Zhuhai Championships—due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and added six single-year tournaments to fill schedule holes.

More: Petition to Permit Djokovic to Play US Open 

It's the third consecutive year of cancellation for the ATP’s China swing, which is typically staged in September and October. The ATP's last China swing was played prior to the pandemic in 2019.

While China is out, the ATP has announced six ATP 250 tournaments, issued as single-year event licenses for the 2022 season:

• Week 38 (19-25 Sep): San Diego, USA (Hard)

• Week 39 (26 Sep-2 Oct): Seoul, KOR (Hard); Tel Aviv, ISR (Indoor Hard)

• Week 41 (10-16 Oct): Florence, ITA (Indoor Hard); Gijon, ESP (Indoor Hard)

• Week 42 (17-23 Oct): Naples, ITA (Hard)

Two of the six single-year tournaments, Florence and Naples, are in Italy, which hosts the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin and the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan.

Here's the newly-announced 2022 ATP schedule:



“As a global sport we continue to manage the impacts of the pandemic," ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said in a statement. "Event cancellations are an unfortunate reality, and we wish our affected tournament members and fans well.

"At the same time, it’s incredibly encouraging to have many great cities step up to host ATP Tour tennis this season. This shows the strong international interest in our product and validates the agile approach we’ve taken in responding to fast-changing circumstances. We would like to thank all stakeholders involved in this process and look forward to an exciting second half of the season.”

When the WTA announced its withdrawal from China in condemnation of the nation's treatment of Peng Shuai, the ATP did not pull out of China in a show of unity. Now, a Coronavirus surge means the end of the China swing again.

The ATP said "single-year event licenses were first issued by ATP in 2020, in response to pandemic-related event cancellations, to maintain playing opportunities and also enable tennis to explore new markets."

In addition, the ATP announced the Astana Open in Nur-Sultan, an ATP 250 event, will this year be staged as an ATP 500 alongside the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo. The Astana Open became a permanent ATP Tour member this season following two editions as a single-year event in 2020 and 2021, through the transfer and relocation of the St. Petersburg tournament.