Wta tour
Osaka climbs to second after Australian Open triumph
The Japanese star beat Jennifer Brady of the US in straight sets in the final to lift the trophy in Melbourne for the second time in three years.
Williams and Barty ground out tough wins at the Yarra Valley Classic, but a teary-eyed Australian Open champion Kenin lost a repeat of last year's final against Garbine Muguruza in straight sets.
Palermo will be the first professional tennis event across the WTA and men’s ATP Tours after a five-month break.
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam event to have been played so far this year. The French Open has been moved to September and is due to start one week after the scheduled U.S. Open men’s final, while Wimbledon has been cancelled.
Osaka, a two-time Grand Slam winner who also became the first Japanese player to reach world number one, had been preparing for another action-packed summer including her Olympics debut on home soil at Tokyo 2020.
Professional tennis has been suspended since March due to the coronavirus outbreak when Indian Wells became the first major tournament to be cancelled.
The Romanian star had barely wrapped up a victory at the WTA tournament in Dubai in February when she pulled out of the following tournament in Doha with the injury, which an MRI showed to be tendinitis and inflammation.
Tennis has been in lockdown since early last month and is not scheduled to return until July 13 at the earliest following the cancellation of Wimbledon for the first time since World War II on Wednesday.
Novak Djokovic last week pledged one million euros (895,305.69 pounds) to help buy medical equipment in his native Serbia, while Rafa Nadal has called on fellow Spanish athletes to help raise 11 million euros to fight the pandemic.
The announcement temporarily shuts down the men's and women's clay court season a day after the French Open was pushed back to September.
Serena Williams wore down a tenacious Laura Siegemund to make the WTA Auckland Classic semi-finals on Friday.
The 32-year-old, who won the tournament in 2008, has slipped down the rankings to 147, outside automatic qualification, and was bounced out of the Brisbane International this week in the first round.
The two-time Grand Slam champion, who will be defending her Australian Open title this month, bumped into Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z while still 'depressed' after losing in the fourth round at the US Open.
The five-time major winner will open her 2020 campaign in Brisbane after being awarded a wildcard by organisers in preparation for the Australian Open later in January.
In many ways 2019 felt like a year of upheaval with a revamped Davis Cup, a shake-up in the ATP hierarchy and new faces lighting up the women’s game, yet some things - notably the furniture at the top of men’s tennis - refuse to budge.
Kim Clijsters, 36, last played on the WTA tour in 2012 and had announced in September that she was planning to make a comeback when the new season begins in January.
Bertens won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and nine minutes in a see-saw match featuring 12 breaks of serve.
Gauff defeated 2017 Roland Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 in the Linz final for her maiden title.
Osaka had already caught the tennis world by surprise when she announced she was parting ways with coach Sascha Bajin, who had overseen her stunning rise to win two grand slams - the US Open in 2018 and the Australian Open title in January.