For the first time since World War II, the Wimbledon tennis championships have been cancelled.
The decision follows a meeting of the All England Club's main board where it was agreed that in all likelihood, the UK government's current coronavirus measures "will continue for many months".
Instead, the 134th Wimbledon Championships will take place from June 28 to July 11 of 2021.
This year's French Open at Roland Garros has already been moved from June to late September, but Wimbledon becomes the first slam to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
While both the ATP and WTA tours remain suspended until the start of this year's grass court season in early June.
Just over 500,000 people came through the famous gates of the All England Club for the 2019 championships.
A statement says, "Uppermost in our mind has been the health and safety of all of those who come together to make Wimbledon happen – the public in the UK and visitors from around the world, our players, guests, members, staff, volunteers, partners, contractors, and local residents – as well as our broader responsibility to society’s efforts to tackle this global challenge to our way of life."
“We’re all in this together and we’ll definitely come out stronger”
Special message to you from @JohannaKonta, @feliciano_lopez, @harriet_dart, @milosraonic, @felixtennis, @KatieBoulter1, @jamie_murray, @cilic_marin, @DonnaVekic & @GrigorDimitrov #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/WgUAIWo8UI— LTA (@the_LTA) April 1, 2020
All England Club Chief Executive Richard Lewis adds, "While in some ways this has been a challenging decision, we strongly believe it is not only in the best interests of society at this time, but also provides certainty to our colleagues in international tennis given the impact on the grass court events in the UK and in Europe and the broader tennis calendar.
"We have appreciated the support of the LTA, and the ATP, WTA and ITF in coming to this decision, and our friends and partners who stage these grass court events that are so important in the build up to Wimbledon.
"I would like to thank the UK Government and public health authorities for their guidance and support, and we will do whatever we can to assist their efforts in tackling the crisis."
The AELTC are determined to play their part in tackling the crisis too, saying, "We have begun distributing medical equipment and offered the use of our facilities to the NHS and to the London Resilience Partnership, the collection of agencies in London fighting the battle against COVID-19.
"We are working with the local authorities in Merton and Wandsworth, particularly on food distribution, and we are distributing food supplies through our partnership with City Harvest."
Those who had successfully applied for ballot tickets for 2020 "will be offered the chance to purchase tickets for the same day and court for The Championships 2021."
