Tennis is getting reorganized after the tours have been stopped until August because of the Coronavirus pandemic. To stage major tournaments, there are many things to take into consideration such as the safety of the stakeholders and logistical issues with the global travel ban being a considerable issue.
The staging of the US Open will be critical for the season to resume. The good point is that it seems that everybody is more than happy to make it happen. The US President is pressing for the activities to return; the governor of the New York State, Andrew Cuomo, has also all the intention to help the sport to resume.
As reported by tennis.com, Stacey Allaster, the USTA’s chief executive for professional tennis, has been working on a series of plans to make the US Open happen and the schedule remains untouched with the slam due to commence on the 31st of August (the main draw).
Allaster stressed that safety is her main concern and even if they explored some other venues, it seems that the major will be staged at his historical premises at the Flushing Meadows.
“We continue to be, I would say, 150% focused on staging a safe environment for conducting a U.S. Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on our dates. It’s all I wake up, our team wakes up thinking about it. The idea of an alternative venue, an alternative date, we’ve got a responsibility to explore it, but it doesn’t have a lot of momentum,” said Stacey.
No fans
Unfortunately, the idea of having no fans at the tournament is gathering moment also following the indications of Andrew Cuomo. Lew Sherr, the USTA’s chief revenue officer, was extremely pessimistic about having fans attending the major. However, the good news is that TV and digital rights are going to be enough for the US Open to take place.
Testing
Before traveling to New York, players need to prove that they had a negative COVDID-19 test.
“Once they come into our, let’s say, ‘U.S. Open world,’ there will be a combination of daily health questionnaires, daily temperature checks and some nasal or saliva or antibody testing,” said Allister.
Flights
Private flights will be organized from some key airports such as Paris, Vienna, Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, and Dubai. Then flights to Rome, Paris, or Madrid will be organized for the following tournaments. If everything is confirmed, it is plausible to expect the players to start to make a move to the US much before the official start of the slam.
Staff
Players that are used to be accompanied by a big staff will have to use local physiotherapists and masseuses so as to diminish the number of people involved.
Technology
It’s interesting that there will be extensive use of technology with fewer line judges than usual and the reliance on line-calling technology that proved to be quite effective during some tournaments.
Ball boys
There is the idea of having people helping the players but the ball persons will be adults (not kids).
Scoring – best of 3 sets?
There are no plans to alter the scoring system for men. However, there is the possibilities that the players will ask to compete with a different format (best of 3?). In fact, if the tours resume, it’s highly probable that the top players will have to play various tournaments back to back, and going deep in a slam with the traditional best of 5 scoring system on hard courts could be too taxing for them.
