Despite a positive coronavirus test after one day of the three-day event, the All-American Team Cup in Atlanta reached a conclusion–and for now a mostly successful one–on Sunday.
Frances Tiafoe was diagnosed with the virus on Saturday morning after winning his Friday singles match against Sam Querrey. Nonetheless, the exhibition event for charity pressed on and got through the weekend without any additional positive tests. Obviously there is a chance other players, tournament organizers, and fans could test positive down the road, but only time will tell.
“Unfortunately, I tested positive late Friday for Covid-19 and have to withdraw,” Tiafoe wrote on Twitter when he announced his withdrawal. “Over the past two months, I have been training in Florida and tested negative there as recently as a week ago.”
The 22-year-old said following his defeat of Querrey on Friday that he had not been feeling well for a few days. That suggests he picked up the virus while training in Florida, before arriving in Atlanta.
“Following his match, [Tiafoe] was showing symptoms and was retested and tested positive,” event officials stated. “Tiafoe has left the event site and will not participate in the remainder of the event. Upon learning this information, we immediately began deep cleaning and sanitizing the event site, and enacted protocols in place for contact tracing and alerting individuals who may have been exposed. The health and safety of our event participants, staff and attendees are a top priority, and we will continue to diligently enforce all guidelines from local health officials. Christopher Eubanks will replace Tiafoe for the remainder of the event.”
Eubanks replaced Tiafoe admirably, too. The former Georgia Tech standout upset Tennys Sandgren on Saturday and five-time BB&T Atlanta Open champion John Isner on Sunday. That paved the way for an improbable comeback from 9-3 down for Team Stars–the youngsters so to speak. Another replacement, Kevin King (filled in for an injured Reilly Opelka), took down Querrey of Team Stripes–the older guys–on the final day. Team Stars won three of the four Sunday matches (all worth three points) to tie the overall contest, after which Tommy Paul beat Steve Johnson in a decisive tiebreaker. Johnson had previously defeated Paul in their actual match to force the ‘breaker.
safer than the Adria Tour, that’s for sure
Great tv coverage, and level of play pretty high.