Tennis News Today: US Open to be Played as Scheduled

The US Open authorities have been given a go-ahead to host the tournament in New York by the state government.

Talks had been on for a while now whether the US Open would be played as scheduled and things had looked bleak in May after the number of people getting infected with the coronavirus had seemingly shown no signs of abating.

However, with things having brought under control in more recent times and the organisers having planned on taking stringent steps to host the tournament, this green signal by the New York governor Andrew Cuomo looks to have come at the right time.

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In a statement released by the US Open Tennis Association, the CEO and Executive Director Mike Dowse said they were “incredibly excited” about the decision made by Cuomo to allow the city of New York to host the tournament.

He added:

“We recognise the tremendous responsibility of hosting one of the first global sporting events in these challenging times, and we will do so in the safest manner possible, mitigating all potential risks.”

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Calling the ability to host the tournament a big boost for the city of New York, Dowse also said it was a chance for tennis to showcase itself as a sport which can be played with social distancing.

While more details will be revealed with an official announcement on Wednesday, the tournament is expected to go ahead without any fans allowed inside, i.e. it will be played to a closed stadium.

The question now is what would be the measures in place for the players arriving from various parts of the world for the competition. World number one Novak Djokovic had already called the proposed rules in place to be potentially too stringent and was slated for his comments by a few including USA women’s player Danielle Collins.

Aussie player Nick Kyrgios has, however, panned the decision to go ahead with the tournament, tweeting:

“Smh – people that live in the US of course are pushing the Open to go ahead,‘Selfish’ I’ll get my hazmat suit ready for when I travel from Australia and then have to quarantine for 2 weeks on my return.”

Earlier, Rafael Nadal had also noted he didn’t think it was appropriate to start thinking of playing tennis again but with a few weeks having gone by since, it would be interesting to see if he has changed his mind.

The Wimbledon has already been cancelled for the year while the French Open is expected to be played after the US Open.