WTA has decided to reward Guadalajara with a WTA 1000 tournament after updating their remaining schedule.
Guadalajara hosted the WTA Final in November after Shenzhen in China could not host the season-ending event due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The tournament was hailed as a massive success and the city has been rewarded with a non-mandatory 1000 event.
“The Guadalajara Open Akron” will now take place from October 17th.
Missing from the updated calender was any tournament in China.
The WTA has refrained from handing the country any tournaments since a very public saga involving Peng Shuai’s disappearance from the tour.
The former doubles world No 1 accused a top Chinese politician of sexual assault before disappearing for several weeks only to re-emerg to deny the allegations and then disappearing again.
The WTA very publicly announced that they did not believe her statement was of her own accord.
It remains a possibility that the WTA Finals will return to Shenzhen at the end of October with an announcement set to be made at a later stage.
The absence of WTA events this year is another blow to China, which is quickly becoming an international sporting wilderness.
It has already withdrawn from hosting the 2023 Asian Cup tournament due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in the country.
In the absence of tournaments in China, the autumn schedule includes a new WTA 500 event in San Diego, California as well before the Guadalajara 1000.
Tunisia will also host a WTA 250 tournament, Jasmin Open from October 3rd.
The fall schedule will also include 12 WTA 125 events throughout Europe and North and South America, bringing the total number of 125 events to at least 24 this season.
