According to the latest release issued by the All India Tennis Association(AITA) on Monday that the Fed Cup Asia Oceania group-1 women’s tennis tournament, which was shifted to Kazakhstan by the International Tennis Federation following the outbreak of Coronavirus in China, has been further postponed by at least three weeks.
The event was originally scheduled to be held in Dongguan in China; however, due to the sudden outbreak of coronavirus in the country, the event had to be moved out due to travel restrictions in the country. Later, the ITF decided to shift the venue of the event and confirmed that the event will be held in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan from February 4 to 8.
Now it has been confirmed that the government of this Central Asian country has decided not to host any international sports events due to the threat of coronavirus.
The statement by Akhouri Bishwadeep, CEO of the All India Tennis Association read, “The ITF is working with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to ensure availability of top players and are also exploring further venue options to host this event.”
AITA further said in a statement that ITF is working together with WTA to ensure the presence of top players for the tournament. Along with this, they are also exploring the option of a new host.
It is to be noted that other than India five other countries namely, China, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Uzbekistan, and Indonesia will be sending their teams to participate in the event. The top two teams will qualify to the next stage.
The Indian team consists of Ankita Raina, Riya Bhatia, Rutuja Bhosle, Karman Kaur Thandi, and Saujanya Bavishetty and Vishal Uppal is the captain of this team. The Indian team was set to travel to Noor Sultan of Kazakhstan after the ITF told AITA that the tournament had been canceled. New locations and dates are being searched.
It is to be noted that the sudden outbreak of coronavirus in China has resulted in shifting a number of sports events from the country. Olympic qualifiers of Boxing, World Indoor Track and Field Championships, Basketball qualifiers among many more were shifted out of China.
