It looks like tennis–the actual tours, not just popup exhibition events–will continue in 2020. With other major sports returning throughout the world, the ATP and WTA tours obviously don’t want to get left behind.
And the USTA doesn’t want to, either.
The combination of those factors has led to the USTA maintaining hope that the U.S. Open and other American-based tournaments will proceed this year. Tennis executives have been meeting on the 15th of every month, and until now those discussions have resulted in nothing but cancellations. On June 15, however, there were finally no more axes brought down. It was announced on Monday that the U.S. Open at New York’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center still has the green light.
“We’re ready to move forward as long as we get all the approvals we need,” USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier assured. “At the end of the day, there are three factors involved in the decision-making. No. 1 is creating a plan that has health and safety at the forefront; No. 2 is whether conducting the U.S. Open is the right thing for the sport of tennis; and No. 3 is whether it can be done in a financially viable manner. We believe we can hit all three of the objectives. But we do need to approach this in a step-by-step manner, and when all of the steps are completed, that is when we can make an official announcement.”
An official announcement could come on Wednesday along with the proposed schedule for the remainder of the 2020 season. The current plan is for the Western & Southern Open (normally in Cincinnati) to take place in New York at the exact same location as the U.S. Open, so that players can stay in a “bubble” for three weeks. That would allow the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. to assume Cincinnati’s previous spot on the calendar and begin on Aug. 16. The French Open is scheduled for week after the U.S. Open ends, starting in late September and continuing in early October.
All of this remains a question mark right now (the USTA is awaiting confirmation from New York government officials), but Monday’s announcement at least offers some hope.
“Our stated goal has been that, if we could build a plan in conjunction with medical and security experts that mitigated the risks of COVID-19 and assured the health and well-being of all U.S. Open participants, we very much want to move ahead with the tournament,” Widmaier concluded. “We believe, by working in the collaborative manner with these experts and the two tours, we have such a plan.”
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