The U.S. Open got the official green light from New York governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday. Barring unforeseen negative developments in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, what is usually the final Grand Slam of the tennis season will take place in Flushing, N.Y. starting in late August.
“The USTA will take extraordinary precautions to protect players and staff, including robust testing, additional cleaning, extra locker room space, and dedicated housing & transportation,” Cuomo posted on Twitter. He continued: “The (coronavirus in New York) numbers today look very good. We’re excited about the U.S. being held in Queen’s…. It will be held without fans, but we can watch it on TV. And I’ll take that.”
There will be a lot more tennis on TV, too, because the U.S. Open is not the only tournament joining the party. In fact, it’s not even the only tournament that will be held at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The Western & Southern Open, normally in Cincinnati, will be played at the BJKNTC one week before the U.S. Open, so that players can stay in a “bubble” for up to three weeks.
“The international nature of tennis is one of its greatest assets; however, this international aspect also creates challenges in restarting the tour seasons,” Western & Southern Open COO Katie Haas commented. “Last year we hosted players representing 47 nations at the Western & Southern Open. With continued restrictions on international travel and quarantine guidelines, hosting multiple tournaments in a controlled environment with shared testing and medical resources at the National Tennis Center provides us the best chance to safely resume play for a combined event that is the size, scope. and stature of the Western & Southern Open.
“While we will miss welcoming our fans and the players to Cincinnati, we are privileged to be the first tournament to bring both tours together for a combined event.”
There is one event scheduled prior to the Cincinnati-U.S. Open bubble double. The Citi Open in Washington, D.C. will assume Cincinnati’s spot on the calendar (beginning Aug. 16) now that the Masters 1000 tournament has been moved one week later. Other ATP events that are confirmed for the post-U.S. Open swing are Kitzbuhel (actually during week two of this year’s second slam), Madrid, Rome, and the French Open.
French Open main-draw action is scheduled to begin on Sept. 28, with qualifying to be staged the week of Sept. 21 (there will be no qualifying at the U.S. Open).
“We are delighted that consultation with the various international tennis authorities has enabled the 2020 edition of the Roland Garros tournament to be extended to three weeks,” said French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli, referring to a week of qualifying. “In the current context, we are fully aware of the privilege of being able to organize Roland Garros in its usual form. Especially since the holding of qualifications will also participate in financially supporting a category of players and professional players affected by this unprecedented crisis.”
thoughts?
Hello everyone, I have not been posting here for a long time! I hope everyone is fine, esp those living in Europe and America, and esp NNY!
I think the revised tennis schedule is crazy to say the least – I mean from Cincy\USO in USA to Madrid/Rome/FO in Europe without any break?? Who’s going to survive that schedule?
Rafa has 5360 points to defend in all those events (including 2 slam title defence!) and he only can pick up points at Cincy realistically! He will be forced to give up his title defence at the USO and so will lose 2000 ranking points if he wishes to defend his FO title successfully!
Djoko has 2320 points to defend at Madrid/Rome /FO; I wonder will be choose to go to USA to pick up points and even the USO title there (he only had 540 points last year from Cincy and USO) and then take it easy at European clay events, including the FO.
I really wonder who will play at the US events; perhaps, only the American players?
IMHO, Rafa should play both slams and skip some of the lesser tournaments like Madrid. On no account should he skip the US open to defend FO. There’s no guarantee he will win it that way, better not to put all his eggs in one basket, that’s not wise bc if he comes up short in FO it would have been all a waste. He is the defending champion of both and worked hard to win them especially the US open after that Final.
They are going to look at revising the bringing only one person rule and even if they don’t, he should play both. As long as they provide a very very safe environment for players at the US open, Nadal should and better play it, he is not getting any younger and Federer is out with injury and next year may be feds last year since he’ll be 40.
Djokovic is going to play the US open. He may complain till forever and all that but we have seen this script before, he’s not stupid he knows he stands a better chance of winning the US OPEN than the French and we know that if Djoko was the defending champion of both, he would definitely play both without question as long as a safe environment is provided.
Murray has said that he will play US open, feliciano Lopez sed he will play and many others not only Americans. You can bet when all is said and done, Thiem will also play despite his complaints.
Nadal should play the Us open and I hope he will but if he decides not to play that’s his business-he can do whatever he wants.
I think it’s bad to try and have the clay season almost at same time as US hard court season.Better to forget it and just play the usual schedule from Washington onwards.
This new schedule certainly favors the young and healthy! No way Rafa is going to win both USO and RG! I hope he doesn’t play the Western & Southern. I expect he’ll attempt to play Madrid (especially Madrid, he really LOVES the place) and Rome if he can still walk and hold a racquet by then.
Seriously I do not expect Rafa to win the USO again this year. When has he ever defended a title there? Just PLEASE no 5 setters!!
It’s just great to be having tennis again and I’m sure will be as competitive as ever. If someone ‘unexpected’ wins I hope there won’t be an asterisk