We received fantastic news from the US as the US Open will take place!
The confirmation came after the local government gave the go-ahead. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed during his daily briefing that the slam will be staged without fans from the 31st of August to the 13th of September.
In addition, the Western & Southern Open that is usually staged in Cincinnati will be played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
@usopen is going to happen. I’m going to talk about all of this later today in IG LIVE around 4pm. pic.twitter.com/NPGBUaCA4K
— Rennae Stubbs ♈️ (@rennaestubbs) June 16, 2020
The statement from the US Open
USTA was elated to receive the official go-ahead. Mike Dowse, USTA Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director released the following statement:
“We are incredibly excited that Governor Cuomo and New York State have today approved our plan to host the 2020 US Open and 2020 Western & Southern Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
We recognize 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.
We now can give fans around the world the chance to watch tennis’ top athletes compete for a US Open title, and we can showcase tennis as the ideal social distancing sport. Being able to hold these events in 2020 is a boost for the City of New York and the entire tennis landscape. We will have more details and an official announcement tomorrow.”
The Measures
USTA went quite creative. Here some key elements.
The qualifications of the Western & Southern Open will take place Aug 20-21 while the main draw will commence Aug 22-28. The size of the draw will be of 48 players for the qualifications, 56 for the main draw, and 32 for doubles.
The US Open will have no qualifications, but it will feature a “traditional” draw of 128 players in single and 32 teams for doubles.
The total compensation (US Open + Western & Southern Open) will be $60 million with compensation to support impacted qualifiers and doubles players.
Accommodation and the teams’ size
Players will have assigned 2 hotel rooms. The organization is also trying to find a way to give the chance to players to rent a private home. It’s interesting that there is no mention of players having the opportunity of bringing along only 1 person. This measure was heavily criticized especially by Novak Djokovic. Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou expressed his doubts that the American would have renounced to see her daughter for 3 weeks if this measure would be applied.
This was the official statement from USTA on these subjects:
“Player Guests
• As planned today per local government approval, you will be permitted two hotel rooms.
Each hotel room can have a maximum of two guests per room. As it stands today, we are explonng social distancing protocols on-site to determine numbers and locations.
Travel
• All players wil travel to New York on their own.
• If you travel to New York and the event is cancelled.a travel stipend wil be provided to each to tour. Amount: TBD
• We have received assurances from the Federal government that you and your team will have no issues entenng the country.
• The US Open centralized medical environment will begin at the hotel. That is where you and your team wil be tested
Hotel
• All players wil be provided two rooms at a designated player hoteKs). The cost of the first room wil be covered by the USTA for all nights before WSO through the US Open.
• The cost of the second room wil be the responsibly of the player.“All players will have the option to rent a private home outside of Manhattan. The USTA is working with a realtor to assist players in finding a home (similar to Wimbledon). The cost of renting this home will be at the players’ expense (estimated total cost $40.000).
Additional player services provided at the hotel expanded fitness center, recovery room, private physiotherapy, a player lounge.”
Safe distancing
Of course, all sorts of measures will be implemented to preserve safe distancing. Since the event will have no fans, there will be a lot of space available for the players, teams and staff. For example, shuttles will run at a 25-50% capacity. Also locker rooms and fitness centers will be continuously sanitized.
Testing
This will be an interesting area. Even if USTA gave some key guidelines, these can be changed any moment according to the current situation.
Tests will be conducted before traveling to the US and at the hotel. Generally speaking, each person should be tested once or twice per week. Temperatures will be taken on a daily basis alongside a questionnaire.
It’s not 100% clear what is going to happen if a player or a person part of the team will test positive. In this case, definitely he or she will be isolated and then the CDC protocol will be followed.
It’s not perfect, but what else?
