体坛英语新闻：ITTF suspends China Open, Hong Kong Open amid coronavirus pandemic

BEIJING, March 20 (Xinhua) -- The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) announced Friday to postpone two of the 2020 ITTF World Tour events scheduled in May amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The two events are the Hong Kong Open, originally scheduled for May 5-10 in Hong Kong, China, and the Platinum China Open in Shenzhen, China on May 12-17.

"With the spread of COVID-19 across different parts of the world over recent weeks, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) confirms that the following events (Hong Kong Open and China Open) have been postponed," read an announcement by the sport's governing body.

No further information was released on possible dates for the two events.

"The ITTF is working with the Hong Kong Table Tennis Association (HKTTA) and Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA) to find new suitable dates for each of the events, while closely monitoring the situation," added the release.

Before the Hong Kong and Shenzhen events' suspension, the ITTF had confirmed that it would postpone the World Table Tennis Team Championships, originally scheduled later this month in South Korea, the Japan Open on April 21-26, as well as June's Australian Open and Korean Open.

The table tennis ruling body also announced a week ago that it would suspend all activities until the end of April following the declaration by the World Health Organization of COVID-19 as a pandemic and the increased number of international travel restrictions.