Competitive tennis set to restart in the Portsmouth area

That is after a number of teams modified their earlier reservations and asked to take part in a winter competition.

Michael Isaacs, the league secretary of the Portsmouth & District League, said some teams - notably those based on the Isle of Wight - were still reluctant to resume competitive play.

But some 63 per cent of the teams playing in the weekend leagues, and 52 per cent of the midweek teams, have said they are now ready to return to action.

With so many teams missing from the normal line-up, the 2020/21 campaign would not be treated as a full winter season.

Indeed, the league is aware that the current LTA and government guidelines mean that normal league play would be very difficult.

In particular, travelling to play opponents at opposite ends of the league’s geographic area may prove to be prohibitively expensive if individual cars have to be used.

Hence the competition is being treated as a series of competitive friendly matches, rather than a normal season, with no penalties applied if teams decide they don’t want to travel to a fixture.

However, all results will be recorded on the league website, as in a normal season.

Fixtures are expected to start in late September/early October and will run through to the end of February 2021.

By then, it is hoped the situation will have improved sufficiently to enable a full, normal

summer season to be set up.