As if tennis and its cluttered calendar needed another complication….the postponement of the Olympics until 2021 will have huge effects on the sport going forward.
As it stood—in this pre-coronavirus world we are all already romanticizing—the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were to be held July 24 to Aug. 9, between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. It wasn’t ideal, especially given the distances and time zones. And, as is the case once every four years, it depletes much of the U.S. summer hardcourt circuit. But it was manageable.
Now? Who knows.
Even assuming Japan pulls off the Olympics in 2021, there’s no guarantee the tennis dates will align.