Lausanne: The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on Saturday announced to extend the current suspension of all ITTF events and activities up until the end of July, while hoping for a restart in August.
The world table tennis governing body held its Executive Committee meeting on Friday and reached several outcomes after discussing the latest situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, the ITTF was forced to cancel as many as nine tournaments including two World Tour events amid the ongoing health crisis.
"The current period of suspension of all ITTF events and activities has been extended up until the end of July 2020; the situation is being monitored closely for an eventual restart of ITTF events in August 2020," said the world body in a statement.
Besides the extension of suspension, the governing body also decided to cancel all World Veterans Tour (WVT) and Table Tennis X (TTX) events for the remainder of 2020, promised to discuss the status of the 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships in June and asked its management to find ways to reduce overall operation costs.
The ITTF had also set new dates for the World Team Championships, which were supposed to take place in Busan in March. They were rescheduled to September-October but the decision will be reviewed next month.
"A decision about the status of the Hana Bank 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships will be made in June 2020.
"ITTF management have been asked to find ways to reduce operation costs overall, including the need for there to be some HR restructure in order to manage 2020 financial realities," the statement added.
Earlier in April, the ITTF had cancelled the Australian Open and the South Korean Open. The Australian Open, which is a World Tour Platinum event, had been scheduled for June 23 to 28, while the South Korean Open was to take place between June 16 and 21.
The ITTF Executive Committee will now meet again on June 2 and thereafter further updates on all upcoming decisions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic will be provided, ITTF said.
