Toray Industries : Cancellation of Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis 2020

It is with great regret to announce that the Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis Executive Committee (headquartered in Tokyo's Minato ward and led by tournament director Yutaka Nakagawa), after much consultation with WTA, decided to cancel the Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis 2020. With the ongoing global COVID 19 pandemic, the WTA Premier tournament in Tokyo, Japan, was initially postponed for two months from September to November. The Executive Committee looked at every possible way to make this tournament happen, including the idea of holding matches without audiences or restricting admissions in order to prioritize the health and safety of everyone involved including players, officials and judges, ball boys and girls, stewards, sponsors and partners, suppliers and contractors, media, guests and all other staff. However, after a series of deliberations, the Executive Committee made a heartrending decision to rule out the postponement, and concluded that the cancelation of the tournament was the best decision in the interest of public health, especially in light of the concern about the second wave of infection spreading in Japan. This will be the first cancellation since this tournament commenced in 1984. This is very unfortunate not only for the international tennis players but for all tennis fans inside and outside of Japan who were looking forward to watching top quality tennis. The Executive Committee will now shift its focus on making 2021 tournament a great success.