ITF World Tennis Tour returns with new COVID-19 protocols

The ITF World Tennis Tour returns today, Monday 17 August with events in Austria and Portugal, as part of the next stage of the ITF’s Return to International Tennis strategy.

The men’s event M25 Vogau and women’s event W15 Oeiras both feature strong fields including emerging talents Holger Rune, Diane Parry and Clara Tauson.

In order to support a safe return to international tennis tournaments, the ITF has published protocols for all tournament hosts and participants to mitigate the risk of exposure to, and spread of, COVID-19.

Measures now in place at ITF tournaments include:

• Before entering the tournament site, all individuals will complete a daily self-declaration of being COVID-19 symptom-free and not having had any high-risk contacts in the last 14 days  
• All individuals entering the tournament site will be subject to daily temperature screening 
• A maximum of 1 support person per player will be permitted on-site for individual events except for players who need essential physical assistance during competition, in which case such additional essential person(s) are permitted. No player support personnel will be permitted in the locker rooms 
• Spectators will only be permitted where approved in advance by the ITF and, if permitted, must be isolated from participants to the greatest extent possible 
• Media will be permitted on-site (including journalists, TV camera operators, live scoring etc.), but must comply with physical distancing, hygiene and screening requirements 
• The fewest number of on-court officials required to provide the appropriate level of officiating must be used 
• Case management and notification protocols will be implemented if a participant does not meet the requirements of the screening, or if any participant tests positive for COVID-19 or reports COVID-19 symptoms within 14 days of the date on which they left the tournament venue. 

All tournament participants are required to adhere to the protocols and any breach of the Minimum Standards of Behaviour will be dealt with in the same way as any other on-site offence under that tour’s Code of Conduct, which have been updated to reflect the new requirements. This includes the ability of the tournament supervisor to eject any attendee from the tournament site for a breach of the Minimum Standards. Players and tournaments can access the updated regulations for each ITF circuit here.

An explanation of how the rankings process will operate across the ITF World Tennis Tour and the  other ITF Circuits is also available here.