By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday June 18, 2020
The US Open is on. The tournament announced the fact on Wednesday in a Zoom conference call, and elaborated on some of the rumors that have been circulating in regard to the health and safety plan that the tournament plans to put in effect to keep Covid-19 from entering the conversation as much as is possible.
In a perfect world, no one would be affected by the changes that were made necessary by the pandemic but, this not being a perfect world, there were parties who were extremely disappointed and felt left out of the conversation. Qualifiers for the US Open are cancelled, as is mixed doubles and the wheelchair events; the men’s and women’s doubles draws were also trimmed from 64 pairs to 32 pairs.
The tournament announced it would still award eight wild cards in the women’s and men’s singles draw, further annoying some who feel that wild cards are an assault on fairness. And they also announced a loosening of their stance on the size of player’s entourages—something that will work in favor of top players who can afford it, and against the lower-ranked players who cannot. Also of interest is the fact that players are now permitted to rent homes in the New York area, as long as they don’t stay in Manhattan, which is another development that will help players that can afford to rent a villa and stuff it with as many members of their entourage as they like (something that is not possible for players that will stay at the pre-approved hotel provided by the tournament. There players, get two rooms, with a max of three other members of the team).
Naturally, debate boiled over on Twitter, just as it had been in the days and weeks before the announcement. Here are some of the highlights and hot takes that were published on Twitter after the Zoom call.
1.Dylan Alcott did not take kindly to the cancellation of the wheelchair events—at all.
2. Nick Kyrgios went right after the ATP CEO Andrea Gaudenzi, calling him a potato.
3. Mitchell Krueger, World No.195, was not happy with the developments.
4.Gabriela Dabrowski’s well thought out missive hit Twitter on Tuesday, when the fact that the doubles draws had been halved and mixed cut completely was revealed.
5. John Millman is in no mood for flying to New York—at least not yet.
6. Serena Williams is so in that the tournament used this video message to promote itself during the call.
7. New York Times journalist Christopher Clarey makes light of the fact that whether we like it or not a new age of tennis officiating will begin on all but the two biggest courts at the US Open.
8.Not everybody was negative on the news, or the details. Many, like Kim Clijsters, want to put the ball in play.
9. American John Isner is ready to put his tennis hard-hat on.
10. John Wertheim makes a good point. The tournament is not really in a good spot financially. At least they’ve kept prize money relatively high, all things considered.
11. Novak Djokovic still won’t officially commit, but he admits that it is a great thing for many of the players to have these earning opportunities coming back.
12. Gordon Reid joins Dylan Alcott in railing against the US Open for cancelling the wheelchair events. This is a man with 13 major titles.
13. Defending singles and doubles wheelchair champ Andy Lapthorne? Also miffed.
14. Billie Jean King praises those who worked tirelessly to put this event together and get tennis back on the road to recovery.
15. Not even sure what Daria Gavrilova was referring to, but she has nailed it. Yup, that’s 2020 in a nutshell.