London, Jul 23 (IANS): The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has announced initial plans to resume play on four of its tours -- ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors, the ITF Seniors Tour, the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour and the ITF Beach Tennis World Tour.

No provisional dates have been announced for the Seniors Tour or the Wheelchair Tennis Tour but the committees for each has decided there will be no resumption of play until at least August 31 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Tennis Tour Juniors and the Beach Tennis World Tour are expected to start in the week commencing August 31.

Men's and women's events on the ITF World Tennis Tour are scheduled to resume in the week commencing August 17.

"This year has been a challenging one for all of us in the tennis world, and while we are all eager to resume the tours as soon as possible in order to restore playing and earning opportunities for players across the world, we must ensure that we take the appropriate steps to make events as safe as possible when they restart," said ITF President David Haggerty.

"We remain in constant communication with our member national associations and will continue to support event hosts as the tour resumption dates draw nearer," he added.