Pro Tennis Players Are Easing Themselves Back Into Competition with Unsanctioned Events

With the tennis world on hold there are plenty of unsanctioned events going on around the world in both men's and women's tennis. SI senior writer Jon Wertheim shares some of the events keeping professional tennis players around the world in competition.

Video Transcript:

It has been more than two months since ATP and WTA players have had a chance to earn prize money to compete and to earn ranking points. But that doesn't mean that competitive opportunities have disappeared entirely. We're seeing more and more unsanctioned events pop up. The UTR held a four-woman event over the weekend in South Florida. Allie Riske, Danielle Collins, Ajla Tomljanovic, Amanda Anisimova were the four players. We are now seeing Novak Djokovic organizing an unsanctioned tour through the Balkans this summer.

The Volvo Open, which is the largest clay event in the US, it's held in April in Charleston - that was canceled. But in its place it will be a 16-woman event, June 23rd-28th that will feature, among other players, the last two major champions: Sofia Kenin of the US, who won the Australian Open this year and Bianca Andreescu, who won the 2019 U.S. Open. So tennis players are easing their way into competition and not insignificantly, having the chance to earn a little prize money. Although there will be no sanctioned events until August at the earliest.