The 2021 season of the Shanghai Masters will not be held in October as scheduled due to the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19, officials have announced.
“After careful consultation between Shanghai Juss Event and ATP, it is decided that the Rolex Shanghai Masters will not be held this year,” read a statement released by organisers Juss Event late on Monday evening.
After being cancelled last year due to COVID-19, the Shanghai Masters has been scrapped from the ATP tournament schedule again as “the health and safety of all personnel involved will always be the primary concern.”
Commenting on it, ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, said: “We’ve maintained a flexible approach to the calendar this year due to the constantly evolving nature of the pandemic. It’s extremely unfortunate to announce the cancellation of our Asia swing this season and we look forward to returning in 2022.”
“I would like to thank all tournament operators for taking on the challenge of staging in this environment, including the new single-year event operators that have stepped up,” he added.
Notably, the Shanghai Masters is one of the nine ATP Tour Masters 1000 events on the ATP Tour, and the only one played outside Europe or North America.
Novak Djokovic holds the record for most singles titles with four, followed by Andy Murray’s three and Roger Federer’s two.