The tennis world has been halted by the Coronavirus pandemic and now there is a considerable effort to resume the operations. While tennis is an extremely safe sport to be played during the COVID-19 outbreak because of its natural social distancing, there are big complications in organizing pro-tennis events. Travel restrictions are making things difficult for tennis tournaments as players are coming from all over the world, and they are used to move around on a weekly basis.
The US Open challenges
The next slam on the calendar is the US Open and the USTA is doing everything possible to make it happen. They have just appointed former WTA boss Stacey Allaster as the tournament director to find a proper set-up. The appointment of Stacey was a great move as she has a broad experience in organizing tennis events, and she will be a great asset to square things up during these difficult times.
The major is played in the state of New York that was hard-hit by the Coronavirus. However, things are going better and better in the state and the leadership is quite keen on staging the slam. Nevertheless, there are some tough requirements for the tournament to be staged that are not really appreciated by some players. There has been a conference call on zoom with the players on Wednesday and things didn’t go very smoothly.
No qualifications and smaller doubles draws
A critical issue for the organization is to keep the number of people on the premises as low as possible. Therefore, the qualifications should not be played and the doubles draws will be smaller than usual (from 64 to 24 teams). It seems that this will leave 350 players out of the event, but they will receive a compensation of $2 million that will be distributed.
Dusting Brown didn’t sound happy in his last tweet saying that tennis players should get equal chances.
Not more than 1 person in the team
Another measure that is not very well accepted especially by the top guns is that not more than 1 person will be accepted to accompany the players. Novak Djokovic has been extremely vocal about this as he is used to having a team of 5 or 6 people going around with him during important tournaments. Also, there are issues with players having small kids as they are not so happy not to see their family for more than 3 weeks (see the article about Serena).
Sleeping near the airport
Players are also expected to sleep in a hotel near the airport with no access to Manhattan. On this issue, there is a mixed feeling among the players. In fact, once again the big fishes are not happy about being confined near the airport because they cannot enjoy the Big Apple and probably organize the ritual promotions. However, some lower-ranked players are much more resilient. Current world no.43 John Millman revealed that when things were not going well for him, he had to sleep at a train station, and therefore, for him, it would not be a problem being “
reclused” in a luxury hotel in New York.No fans and no press
It seems also more and more plausible that there will be no fans and no press at the premises making this slam to be a bit of a ghost event.
The Cincinnati Masters
There is also an idea floating around staging the Cincinnati masters also in New York so as to minimize the movements of the players and the staff.
Will the US Open be played?
As things are right now it is still plausible that the US Open will take place this year with no fans. However, there is also a strong possibility that the Big3 will not play. Roger Federer has just announced that he had another procedure to his knee so as to miss the rest of the season. Rafeal Nadal said that the current conditions in New York are not right to play and therefore he might focus his attention on the Roland Garros. Furthermore, Novak Djokovic is quite pessimistic about playing with the current measures.
Nevertheless, even without the Big3 the tournament is expected to be staged and there will be the opportunity to place bets on local NJ betting sites.
Nadal the defending champion
Not playing the US Open will be a tricky choice for Nadal as he is also the defending champion and therefore he would lose 2000pts. Last year he won the major after a highly dramatic final against the rising star Daniil Medvedev following an epic 5 setter that ended 7-5 6-3 5-7 4-6 6-4.
During the tournament, before the final, Rafa dropped just 1 set when facing Marin Cilic in the 4th round. He also defeated John Millman in the 1st round before getting a walkover in the 2nd after Kokkinakis withdrew. Then be beat in straight sets Hyeon Chung, Diego Schwartzman, and Matteo Berrettini.
Serena Williams and Bianca Andreescu
Serena Williams and Bianca Andreescu would be the big stars at the US Open on the women’s side as they were the 2019 finalists. There are some doubts about Serena playing the slam if she is not allowed to see her daughter for 3 weeks as previously mentioned. However, she is still chasing Margaret Court’s 24-slams record and the US Open is a great opportunity for her to do that. On the other side, Bianca has been sidelined for long after her knee’ injury and she is itching for defending her title.