Milos Raonic and Serena Williams have 1 thing in common during this short US swing: they both decided to reside in a private house.
The USTA has developed a so-called bubble that consists of creating a close enclosure for the tennis players and their staff during the Western & Southern Open and the US Open. Tennis players had the opportunity of either stay at the hotel designated by the organization or to stay in a private house (still under strict supervision).
Serena Williams, Raonic and the private house
During a recent press conference, Serena explained that she decided to stay in a private house as she was scared of being in the hotel with the other people. In fact, Serena has some issues with her lung, and being infected by the Coronavirus could be rather dangerous for her.
Milos has a slightly different motivation as he was cautious about the health of his parents to comment:
“My motivation was plain and simple. It’s my parents. I’m not sure what the ages are of the other players’ parents, those people that are closest to them. Both my parents, being over 65, and also having pre-existing conditions, for me — and I haven’t seen my father this year at all. I saw my mom for I think a day and a half after the Australian Open.
For me it was important that I got to see them, but I was also very motivated to stay smart and healthy because of them.So I can’t really comment too much on what other players are doing. I understand it can be tough, but I had a clear idea of why I was doing it.
Secondly, I can only control myself while I’m here in this bubble. I have elected to sort of follow the rules and follow them maybe to a little bit of an extreme. I’m not really spending any time with other players, not seeing anybody. The way they have sort of organized it for us that we have the suites available, which would normally be the sponsor suites, to ourselves if you’re a seed, I pretty much stay in there.”
Raonic in New York, ranking, and results in 2020
Now ranked no.30, Milos has a 8-4 win-loss record in 2020. Milos is playing in New York where he bested Sam Querrey 6-4 6-4.
Milos Raonic will take on Evans in the 2nd round. They have never played each so far on the main tour.
Raonic won 8 titles in his career: 3 on hard courts and 5 on indoor courts. (See the list of his titles)
Serena Williams in 2020
At the moment ranked no.9, Serena played her last match on the 14th of August when she was overcome by Shelby Rogers 1-6 6-4 7-65 in the quarter in Lexington.
Presently, this year Serena Williams has a 10-3 win-loss record. Serena clinched 1 title in Auckland.
