Given the tournament's size and status, it may be able to have other events move to fit its scheduleGetty Images
The goal for the BNP Paribas Open is to "hold the event at a later date in 2021," and from the tone of the statement put out by the tournament, it "sounds like they are making every push to ensure that happens," according to Shad Powers of the Palm Springs DESERT SUN. This event is "too big and generates too much money for three full years to go by without it being played." It is "clear in just a two-sentence statement that the organizers are going to bend over backwards to make it happen at some point in 2021." October or November "might be the most likely option." The general public "kind of tunes out of pro tennis once the U.S. Open concludes in September and the rest of the calendar, while filled with events including some year-end tournaments for the elite players, wouldn't hold anything as big as the BNP Paribas Open." In other words, the tournament "could probably throw its weight around during these months and have other events move to fit their schedule." The temperature in late fall in the desert is similar to March (Palm Springs DESERT SUN, 12/30).
MANY MOVING PARTS: In Palm Springs, Andrew John notes the ATP and WTA "have yet to finalize their schedules for next year." A new date "would presumably have to be after the scorching summer months, following wide distribution of a vaccine and when overall public health will have hopefully improved" (Palm Springs DESERT SUN, 12/30). In N.Y., Matthew Futterman writes officials have been "scrambling for weeks to try and find a way to salvage the event as rates of coronavirus infection increase in the United States, especially in California." The tournament, known informally as the "Fifth Slam," represents a "rare chance to promote the sport with nearly all of the top players in the world in the United States." Now, those players "will most likely appear in the United States at the Miami Open in late March" and then "return after Wimbledon in midsummer for the hardcourt season that culminates with the United States Open in late August" (N.Y. TIMES, 12/30).
