A typical game of tennis isn’t really in the cards.

As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many major tennis events have been indefinitely shelved, including some of the really big deals like Wimbledon. The next big events on the docket are the US Open and the Masters 1000, but as things currently stand, running both games as they’ve been run prior isn’t really an option. This is why the CEO of the ATP and the director of the USTA got together with a focus group of tennis players in a big conference call to try and logic out some alternatives. After that call, they came out with three potential avenues.

Option one would be to run both the US Open and the Masters 1000 at Flushing Meadows in New York, rather than having the Masters at Cincinnati. This would allow both games to run, but then there wouldn’t be time for qualifiers at the Open, and the doubles draw would be cut to 24 pairs.

Option two is to cancel the Masters 1000 entirely. While this obviously means a lost game, it would free up time and space to have full qualifiers for the US Open, as well as full-sized doubles draws.

Credit: EssentiallySports

The third option would be to cancel both the US Open and the Masters 1000. This is, as you may expect, the least popular option, though it would also be the safest option for both fans and players. If both the Open and Masters were cancelled, then the only remaining Grand Slam of the 2020 season would be the French Open. Counting that and the Australian Open that was held at the start of the year, that would mean only two Grand Slams for the entire season, which would be pretty lame.

An official decision has not yet been made, especially due to the continuing uncertainty of the pandemic. Hopefully, though, we can squeeze at least a teensy bit of tennis out of the remaining season.