New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the US Open tennis tournament will be held in late August as part of the state's reopening from shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Tennis Association had decided to go forward with its marquee event in New York City without spectators, pending approval from the state. Like many sports leagues, the professional tennis tours have been suspended since March because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The US Open is scheduled to run from August 31 to September 13. It normally is each season's fourth and final Grand Slam tournament but would be the second of 2020.
“We’re ready to move forward as long as we get all the approvals we need,” USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier had said on Monday.
The operational plan to hold the event amid concerns about the coronavirus includes no spectators, limited player entourages, centralised housing, increased cleaning at the tournament grounds in Flushing Meadows and testing for COVID-19.
Also part of the plan: There would be no qualifying for singles. Players whose rankings would have put them in that field will get money that the USTA will pass along to the ATP and WTA tours to distribute. The Cincinnati tournament scheduled for August 16-23, which is majority owned by the USTA, will be moved to New York in place of US Open qualifying.
One big question that remains, if the state gives the go-ahead: Which players would participate? Such top names as both No. 1-ranked players, Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty, have expressed reservations about heading to New York. So has defending men’s champion Rafael Nadal.
Already ruled out: Roger Federer, who has won five of his men’s-record 20 Grand Slam singles titles at the US Open but announced recently that he is out for the rest of the year after needing a second arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.
The USTA wants to add locker rooms, including at indoor courts that housed hundreds of temporary hospital beds at the height of New York’s coronavirus outbreak, and improve air filtration in existing spaces. Also being considered: no locker-room access until just before a match. So, if anyone goes to Flushing Meadows just to train, tournament director Stacey Allaster said in an interview last month, “You come, you practice, and return to the hotel.”
(With PTI inputs)
