Fan mail addressed to women tennis players competing in the Swisscom Challenge is not being distributed to them because of the anthrax scare in the United States, tournament organisers said today.
"We are working with the WTA and collecting all letters addressed to players and anything that seems strange is shredded," said Swisscom Challenge communications director Andre Glauser.
A official with the WTA, the organising body for women's tennis, confirmed the Tour was "currently in the process of developing a new policy for player mail" and had "stopped distributing letters given the current situation".
Mail is being handled with latex gloves at the $1.1 million Zurich event.
DELTA security, whose clients also include world soccer's governing body FIFA, said it had made no significant changes to tournament security but had contingency plans in place should the situation change.
DELTA protection supervisor Markus Biedermann said the company had reviewed its plans in light of the situation in the United States as well as the recent attack in the nearby town of Zug where a gunman stormed the local parliament and killed 14 people.
"We analysed the situation and felt there was no special need for extra security right now," said Biedermann.
"That could quickly change if there were new attacks in the United States and more targets like politicians and sports celebrities."