The World Snooker Tour has announced that the remainder of this weekend’s Gibraltar Open will be played behind closed doors.
The tournament will continue as scheduled, but snooker supporters won’t be permitted to attend “following advice from HM Government of Gibraltar.”
WST additionally stated that the decision was taken “as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus.”
It comes only a day after the sport’s commercial arm insisted that next week’s Tour Championship and the upcoming World Snooker Championship will go ahead as planned.
After a couple of days of amateur pre-qualifying, the main stages of the 2020 Gibraltar Open got under way on Friday.
Initially, a total of 100 snooker supporters were allowed to watch at the Europa Point Sports Complex.
However, the players will now be forced to play out the remainder of the competition in an empty arena.
Snooker is just one from a number of sports that has taken steps to cancel or postpone major sporting occasions internationally.
Right at the outset of what has now been classified as a worldwide pandemic, WST opted to cancel the China Open for instance.
Restrictions could yet be put in place for the Tour Championship and the blue riband World Championship in Sheffield.
Meanwhile, Mark Williams and Kyren Wilson were among the eight players who advanced to the last 16 in Gibraltar yesterday.
The pair could qualify for next week’s ranking event in Llandudno if they secure the title on Sunday.
Judd Trump, Barry Hawkins, and Jack Lisowski are among the competitors entering the fray on Saturday.
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