Men’s tennis has shut down for a minimum of six weeks with the women’s game expected to follow. The French Open in May and Wimbledon in June are thought to be safe at the moment, but several other big tournaments will be cancelled.

The Miami Open, which was due to start next week, became the first to fall when the Miami-Dade Mayor, Carlos Gimenez, cancelled all mass gatherings and a statement from the ATP later confirmed no tournaments will be held until the end of April at the earliest.

Beyond Miami, the other Masters tournament affected will be Monte Carlo (12 April) as well as smaller events in Houston, Marrakech, Barcelona and , Budapest.

If the situation allows, the tour will resume with low-key tournaments in Munich and Estoril beginning on April 27, followed a week later by the Madrid Open.

The slow response by the ATP, who oversee the men’s game, has frustrated players and tournament directors seeking guidance on the coronavirus crisis that forced the cancellation of the Indian Wells Masters and, since then, other minor tournaments.

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However, after a series of urgent overnight phone calls between tournament organisers and the ATP, confirmation came that the calendar will be suspended indefinitely.

In contrast, the game’s oldest governing body, the ITF, responded quickly to the global Covid-19 threat on Wednesday by cancelling the Fed Cup finals in Budapest in April, as well as the play-off matches in eight other venues, including Great Britain’s tie in Mexico.

However, suspension of the NBA programme and the steadily rising awareness in the United States of the scale of the pandemic ultimately sharpened the focus of tennis administrators there.

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If circumstances improve, the second grand slam of the season, the French Open, will be saved, but sources stressed on Thursday there could be no guarantees. Between Roland Garros (24 May) and Wimbledon, which starts on 29 June, a slew of minor tournaments could go ahead, including the Libéma Open in the Netherlands on 8 June, where Murray might have begun his preparation for Queen’s and Wimbledon, and the following week in Halle, where Roger Federer, recovering from knee surgery, potentially would have returned to the game.

The Olympic Games in Tokyo in July and August are still under threat, and tennis is monitoring developments as players and federations wait to see if qualification will proceed. The ITF said: “We are working closely with the IOC to address any impact on athlete eligibility.”