The 2020 Wimbledon Championships was a cancelled Grand Slam

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament scheduled to be played at the

All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, London, England, is a Gentlemen's club, private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon ...

Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...

, United Kingdom, between Monday 29 June 2020 and Sunday 12 July 2020. It was never played because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The cancellation of the tournament was announced on 1 April 2020. This was the first time since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

that the Wimbledon Championships have been cancelled.

Cancellation and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The All England Club exercised an insurance plan covering infectious diseases, reportedly claiming over £100 million for the cancellation. £10m was distributed to the 620 players whose rankings would have been high enough for them to enter the tournament had it taken place. It was the first time the tournament had been cancelled since 1945 during

. Had it gone ahead, it would have been the 134th edition of the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

of Serbia and

Simona Halep Simona Halep (; born 27 September 1991) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019, for a total of 64 weeks, which ranks eleventh in the history of the Women's Tennis Assoc ...

of Romania were the defending champions in the men's and women's singles draw. Following the cancellation, BBC, the host broadcaster of this event since 1937 decided to air classic games as a replacement programme.

Rescheduling of the tournament

The 134th edition of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships was rescheduled in 2021 instead, which took place from Monday 28 June 2021 to Sunday 11 July 2021 and in the end, Djokovic retained the gentlemen's singles title, while

Ashleigh Barty Ashleigh is the feminine form of the Old English name Ashley (given name), Ashley, which means "dweller near the ash tree forest". It is most common in the United States and United Kingdom. Notable people B *Ashleigh Ball (born 1983), Canadian ...

of Australia won the ladies' singles in the rescheduled tournament.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wimbledon Championships, 2020 2020 ATP Tour 2020 in English sport 2020 in tennis 2020 sports events in London 2020 WTA Tour July 2020 sports events in the United Kingdom June 2020 sports events in the United Kingdom Tennis events cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic