For the first time since 1945, the yearly Wimbledon Grand Slam tennis tournament will not hold, no thanks to the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the globe.
The All England Club cancelled this year’s Wimbledon following an emergency board meeting.
The organisers had hoped to hold off making a final decision for a few more weeks but chief executive Richard Lewis announced that had been brought forward to an emergency board meeting at which it was decided to cancel rather than postpone the two-week grass-court tournament.
Main-draw play at Wimbledon was due to start on June 29 and preparations for the tournament are supposed to begin in late April, requiring a significant number of people on site.
But the conditions required to play on grass means fans will have to make do for a year without Wimbledon for the first time since 1945.
Since the first Wimbledon tournament in 1877, there have only been 10 years where it has not been held, all of them due to war. Since 1946, Wimbledon has been staged every year.
The Wimbledon thus joins the long list of sporting events that have either been cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19.
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