Press release from the Asheville Tennis Association:
Event organizers from the Asheville Tennis Association and the City of Asheville today announced that the Asheville Open Tennis Championships will not be held in 2020, but will return to Asheville in 2021, a move prompted by the coronavirus health crisis.
The 89th edition of the Asheville Open Tennis Championships will now be held at Aston Park Tennis Center in Asheville in July of 2021.
Since early March, Asheville Open Tennis Championships organizers have been closely monitoring the situation with the North Carolina Tennis Association, USTA Southern, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services.
“We needed to make a decision now on our event,” Asheville Tennis Association President Jeff Joyce said. “We know our passionate players, volunteers, friends and fans will be disappointed that they have to wait an extra year for the Asheville Open Tennis Championships in Asheville, but this is the responsible course of action, necessitated by the Coronavirus health crisis.
“We want to call it now to provide certainty for our players as well as our sponsors, fans, partners, staff, volunteers and of course the great city of Asheville. We thank them all for their unwavering dedication, hard work, support and understanding and we are excited to bring happier times to Asheville in 2021.”
“Most importantly, all of our thoughts are with the massive number of people around the world impacted by COVID-19 and the incredible selfless people working on the front line keeping many of us safe.”
“It’s unfortunate that the Asheville Open Tennis Championships has to be pushed back a year, but at this stage it’s the right thing to do for everyone concerned,” presenting sponsor and long-time Asheville tennis player, Brian Elston explained.
Asheville Open Tennis Championships Tournament Director, Laura Loftis reiterated: “After careful consideration we all agreed that in order to provide the Asheville Open Tennis Championships experience that everyone has come to love and expect, moving the event to July 2021 was the only option.”
The tennis world has seen an unprecedented number of events cancelled or postponed. The Asheville Open joins Wimbledon in cancelling for the first time since World War II. Other notable cancellations and postponements include the French Open, Laver Cup, Fed Cup, Davis Cup, along with several ITF, ATP, and WTA events. The United States Tennis Association will announce their decision on the US Open in mid to late June. The USTA announced over the weekend that their Semi-Annual Meeting for Labor Day weekend has been cancelled.
Our thoughts and sympathies are with all the families who have lost loved ones in the COVID-19 epidemic and we would like to express our enormous gratitude to the front-line workers around the world working so hard to try and slow the rate of infection and treat those who are ill.
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