Reuters Sports News Summary

Following is a summary of current sports news briefs. Wimbledon canceled for the first time since World War Two

The Wimbledon championships were canceled for the first time since World War Two on Wednesday as the coronavirus pandemic struck another blue-riband sports event off the calendar and wiped out the entire tennis grasscourt season. While the decision had looked inevitable for some time, since the virtual shutdown of world sport and the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, Wimbledon had been one of the few events not to have been officially canceled or postponed. MLB cancels June's Cubs-Cardinals London Series due to coronavirus

Major League Baseball, which already postponed the start of its 2020 season because of the coronavirus outbreak, said on Wednesday it has decided to cancel its planned return to London in June. The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, who make up one of the National League's most storied rivalries, were scheduled to play a two-game series from June 13-14 at the London Stadium, home of English Premier League soccer club West Ham United. McLaren to put staff on furlough, F1 drivers take pay cut

McLaren became the first Formula One team to furlough staff because of the coronavirus on Wednesday, with drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz joining senior management in taking a pay cut. The sportscar maker said in a statement the temporary three-month wage reduction was part of wider cost-cutting measures due to the impact of the pandemic on its business. Golf: Asian Tour's Shinhan Donghae Open returns to Korea; Japan switch scrapped

Plans to host this year's Shinhan Donghae Open in Japan have been scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Asian Tour said on Thursday, with organisers now set to continue the golf tournament at its regular home in South Korea. South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group, the tournament's title sponsors, had planned to host the 36th edition in Nara prefecture in September as part of its efforts to "leverage more active Korea-Japan exchanges through sports". Basketball: McLaren to head up international basketball integrity unit

Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, who wrote a report into state-sponsored doping in Russia for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), was appointed Integrity Officer for the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) on Wednesday. "I am delighted to be working with FIBA. I congratulate FIBA’s leadership for their commitment to ensuring the integrity of the sport," McLaren said in a statement. Mixed martial arts: Nurmagomedov in quarantine, says Ferguson fight off

UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov says his fight against American Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 is off as he is in quarantine in Russia amid the coronavirus pandemic. Dagestan native Nurmagomedov was scheduled to face Ferguson on April 18 at the Barclays Center in New York but the venue had already been ruled out because of the virus outbreak. Woods, Mickelson to play coronavirus relief match with Brady, Manning: report

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will play a coronavirus relief golf match next month with Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, CNBC reported on Wednesday. The report, which sourced an unnamed person familiar with the negotiations, said the charity match would be held at an undisclosed location without fans and is being organised by the PGA Tour and AT&T's WarnerMedia. NHL: Four more members of Senators organization test positive

The Ottawa Senators said Wednesday that four more members of the organization have recovered after testing positive for the coronavirus. The Senators had previously announced that two players had tested positive. All of those affected were part of the 52-member traveling party on the team's March 7-11 California road trip, including players, staff, media, guests and the flight crew. Tennis: Top players donate, lower tier counts cost of coronavirus shutdown

While top players donate to coronavirus relief efforts and post cooking and workout videos online, lower level professionals are counting the cost of the tennis shutdown with some fearing they will be unable to put food on the table if it lasts much longer. Novak Djokovic last week pledged one million euros ($1.11 million) 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. Olympics: Zion on the 'Dream Team'? Athletes confused over qualifying for Games

The decision to delay the Tokyo Olympics by a year is sparking both anxiety and hope among the world's athletes as the coronavirus pandemic adds to confusion over who might qualify for the Games, now in 2021. Legal experts warned of a Pandora's Box of messy legal challenges from athletes in the lead-up to the Games, as sporting bodies consider tweaks to qualifying criteria that could impact who gets in and who misses out.