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By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, August 18, 2020

 
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"We are living it and certainly understand that our centralized environment is different from other professional leagues, we're ready," US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster said. 

Photo credit: Jennifer Pottheiser/USTA

Four years ago, the USTA put a lid on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In two weeks, it attempts another audacious engineering feat: the first bubble-wrapped Grand Slam.

More: US Open Preview Magazine

The 2020 US Open will be the first Grand Slam played in a safety bubble designed to protect players, coaches and staffed from the Coronavirus.

The Flushing Meadows major is the first international sporting event of this scale attempted since the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are living it and certainly understand that our centralized environment is different from other professional leagues, we're ready," US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster said. 

The USTA will host the Western & Southern Open, traditionally played in Cincinnati, and the US Open in succession at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center with a combined $60 million prize money on the line. The Western & Southern Open will be contested August 19-28th with the US Open following August 31st-September 13th.

Clearly, there’s a lot more than a Grand Slam title and the $3 million US Open champion’s check on the line and USTA CEO Mike Dowse is confident the tournament can tread the tightrope between safety and competition successfully.

“We have 100 percent confidence we're doing this properly,” Dowse told the media in a conference call today. “We were very disciplined in our approach. Again, that was health and well-being number one. Number two, in the best interests of tennis. Three, does it financially make sense for the players, the USTA and the broader tennis ecosystem.

"The thing I'm most excited about is the energy, as I shared earlier, from the players as they've come in and the broader tennis community. People are starved to see these great athletes competing in these two big tournaments. I'm really optimistic that we're going to look back at this in a few months and really be proud of what everyone accomplished, what this has done for our sport of tennis.”




Citing social distancing requirements in this COVID-19 climate, the USTA is staging the tournaments without fans and media in attendance—though broadcast rights holders will be permitted on site—mark the first fan-free, largely media-free major.

There are now about 350 players already in the safety bubble.

Credit the USTA for six months of planning and safety protocol its put into place.

The question is: Will it work?

The plan is predicted on a three-tiered safety system to reduce the risk of exposure to the virus.

Tier 1 is comprised of players, coaches, physios, player guests, USTA operations staff and tournament referees and Grand Slam supervisors. Tier 1 designees stay at the Uniondale Marriot on Long Island, which the USTA is renting exclusively, or players have the choice to stay at private homes, which are also subject to safety protocol. 

“Tier one, that includes all the players, their guests, tournament off staff, officials and the medical teams, approximately about a thousand people in the tier one group,” US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster said. “The tier two group includes broadcasters, people who may interact [with players] but have very, very, very little interaction and exposure.

“Lastly, the third tier, includes staff, whether it be security, parking, vendors. Again, their limited interactions are even less.”



Though six of the world’s Top 10-ranked women—world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, Wimbledon winner Simona Halep, defending US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, Madrid champion Kiki Bertens and US Open semifinalists Belinda Bencic and Elina Svitolina—have already pulled out of the Flushing Meadows major due to Coronavirus concerns, Dowse said player participation has “exceeded our expectations.”

“Despite some of the challenges we have faced, in the women's draws we have 10 former Grand Slam champions, seven former No. 1s, and 81 of the top 100 players competing,” Dowse said today. “On the men's side, we have seven of the top-10 players playing, eight former Grand Slam finalists, and 90 of the top 100 players.

“This truly will be exciting for tennis fans around the world to watch these great athletes compete for a Grand Slam title.”

In a conference call with the media today, Dowse, US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster and Dr. Bernard Camins, medical director for infection prevention for the Mt. Sinai Health Systems and member of the USTA Medical Advisory Group, discussed the US Open’s safety protocol.

The call came shortly after the USTA announced asymptomatic non-player has tested positive for Coronavirus.

Testing began on August 13th and the USTA says it has conducted 1,400 Coronavirus tests thus far. Tournament officials said they’re not surprised by the positive test and express confidence safety protocol will prevent a Coronavirus spike that occurred on the Novak Djokovic-led Adria Tour in June when several players, including world No. 1 Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki tested positive after failing to follow social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines.

“I will tell you in our planning and contingency planning, we expected this to happen,” Dowse said. “As we mentioned, we conducted 1,400 tests. Mathematically we expected to have a positive if not more than one. So we did anticipate this and we have put very specific protocol in place to prevent this from spreading broadly.”



Here are some commonly-asked questions about the 2020 US Open and answers.

How often will players be tested for COVID-19?

Players are tested twice within a 48-hour span of arriving at the player hotel on Long Islan.

An initial test is required upon arrival. Players are then required to quarantine in their room for a 24-hour period before a second test is given. After receiving a negative test result, players are given their credential, which is required for transportation and access to the NTC.

A second test is required 48 hours after an initial test result is negative. Upon receiving a negative result to the second test, players will be tested every four days thereafter.

Players are not required to take an antibody test though the USTA says it is “highly recommended.”

When are players required to enter the US Open safety bubble?

Four days before the start of play—by August 27th—players must be ensconced in the safety bubble to be eligible for the US Open, which begins on August 31st.

Those entered in the Western & Southern Open must be in the bubble today to be eligible for the transplanted Cincinnati in Queens.

What are the safety requirements to enter the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center?

• Everyone must submit the daily health questionnaire before access to the NTC is permitted.

• Temperature must be taken by USTA representative before access to the NTC is permitted.


• Any individual who registers a temperature of 100.4 or above will have their temperature re-checked. If it is still at 100.4 or above, the individual will not be allowed to access the NTC. 

• Everyone on site must wear a mask at all time. The exceptions are when players are playing, practicing, training or eating. 

What happens if a player tests positive for Coronavirus right before or during the US Open?

Any player testing positive for COVID-19 will be disqualified from the US Open draw and be quarantined.

“If a player during competition were to test positive, under the New York State guidelines, that player would be withdrawn from the tournament, and we would begin isolation/quarantine protocols as outlined by the State of New York,” USTA managing director of communications Chris Widmaier said.

If a player is disqualified from the US Open due to the virus, how will the tournament fill that disqualified player’s spot?

A doubles player will be promoted to the singles field as replacement. The doubles player with the highest singles ranking will step into the vacant spot should a singles player be disqualified from the field.

Typically, a lucky loser would step into the main draw. However, the USTA eliminated both the US Open qualifying and mixed doubles events to try to minimize the number of people on site and maximize safety. 

What is the biggest risk players face? 

"I think the biggest thing that we really worried about was to make sure that we can keep players from socializing too much, too close to each other, not wearing the mask, not following our universal masking protocols," Dr. Camins said. "In the four days that I have been involved and watching everybody, everybody actually has been following those recommendations carefully, and we even have hired extra staff to be our health and safety ambassadors who are doing that.

"Those are the really big issues that we thought about. The other thing that we have installed is a tiered approach. Only tier one individuals are really interacting with other tier one individuals. The other tiers hardly, if any, have contact with tier one individuals."

What type of quarantine will players leaving the US Open face when they try to fly to Rome, which begins on September 14th, or back to Europe?

Answer is a work in progress. Some European players who withdrew from the US Open cited concerns about facing a potential quarantine upon returning from America.

As of now, ATP, WTA, Italian Tennis Federation and French Tennis Federation officials are working with national governments to clarify the policy, Stacey Allaster said.

“Based on these government protocols and the type of testing they may require prior to traveling to those countries, [we] will be assisting the athletes and their guests to ensure that they have everything in place around the PCR testing,” Allaster said. “The ATP and the WTA, the French foundation, Italian foundation, we're working with them, but they're taking the lead on working with those governments.”

 

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