Sports
Coronavirus: ATP Tour Shuts Down For Six Weeks
The ATP Tour has postponed all play for six weeks because of “escalating health and safety issues” arising from the coronavirus outbreak.
All tournaments on the men’s ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour have been cancelled until 27 April.
The Miami Open was cancelled earlier on Thursday, following the postponement of Indian Wells and the Fed Cup Finals.
“This is not a decision that was taken lightly,” said ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi.
“It represents a great loss for our tournaments, players, and fans worldwide.
“However, we believe this is the responsible action needed at this time in order to protect the health and safety of our players, staff, the wider tennis community and general public health in the face of this global pandemic.
“The worldwide nature of our sport and the international travel required presents significant risks and challenges in today’s circumstances, as do the increasingly restrictive directives issued by local authorities. We continue to monitor this on a daily basis and we look forward to the Tour resuming when the situation improves.”
The WTA is yet to make its intentions clear, but it is expected there will be no tennis on the women’s tour before the latter part of April.
The ATP says the impact of the suspension on the world rankings will be carefully considered.
The suspension of all ATP events takes place with immediate effect, which means the two Challenger tournaments taking place in Kazakhstan and South Africa will not be completed.
In Potchefstroom, 18-year-old Briton Jack Draper was a game away from victory in his second-round match. They had stopped for rain, but will never resume.
Following meetings of the ATP and WTA player councils in Indian Wells, it became clear that a significant number of professionals did not feel happy about playing on through the crisis.
The ITF has suspended all events until 20 April.
Sports
Iwobi Optimistic On S’Eagles Qualification
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
Sports
ATLANTICBELL CEO ADVICE SPORTS WRITERS ON SPECIALIZATION
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
Sports
DEPUTY PRESIDENT EXPRESSES COMMITMENT TO SUPPORT SPORTS DEV, SWAN
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
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