By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday June 17, 2020
The US Open is back and so are the WTA and ATP Tours. Find out when the fun begins.
Photo credit: US Open Facebook
In a video press conference today, the US Open has announced it’s plan for the 2020 US Open, while at the same time the ATP and WTA Tours, in collaboration with The ATP, in collaboration with the ITF, USTA and the FFT, released updates to their calendars.
We’ll give you a rundown of what has been planned:
WTA Starts First
The WTA Season will begin in Palermo on August 3. See the calendar below--also note that they've planned to play the WTA Finals Shenzhen in early November after a five-week Asian swing.
"The WTA Tour will traverse across several countries in Europe and Asia-Pacific, including the China Open in Beijing, with another few weeks of tournament competition leading into the season-ending Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen set for November 9-15."
ATP to Start with Citi Open on Aug. 14
The ATP will start up on August 14th with the Citi Open in Washington, DC. The ATP said that a further update to the remainder of the season after Roland Garros could be expected by mid-July.
A further update on the intended schedule beyond Roland Garros, including a possible Asia swing ahead of the European indoor swing culminating with the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in London, is expected in mid-July.
“Our objective has been to reschedule as many tournaments as possible and salvage as much of the season as we can,” said Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, in a statement. “It has been a truly collaborative effort and we hope to add more events to the calendar as the situation evolves.
Also of note is the fact that both tours are planning to hold a few weeks of clay season before Roland Garros, which officially announced that its start date has been moved back to Sep 27.
Madrid is set to start on Sep 13, with Rome following on Sep 20.
Roland Garros will be held with full qualifications, unlike the US Open.
During the press conference, new US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster covered several topics, included much talked about player entourages.
Novak Djokovic called the USTA’s proposed measures “extreme” when word of the plan started leaking a few weeks ago. It seems that the tournament has softened its stance of late, and is now leaving the door open for number of coaches and physio to be allowed on site and in New York with the players.
"As it relates to on site, this is evolving,” Allaster said. “We started putting out this plan three, four weeks ago. Obviously there have been significant discussions with the athletes on +1, +2 etc... the majority of the athletes, I think, understand that we have to limit."
Allaster also said:
"We're going to work with the athletes, with the tours, on how many on site, the timing... we understand the needs of the athletes we just need to be sure that we navigate the physical distancing."
Allaster also added the US Open plans to offer eight singles wild cards and about three or four doubles wild cards. She confirmed that there will be no qualifying and no mixed doubles at the event.
Serena Is In the Mix
The tournament will benefit from the support that Serena Willams has offered. The six-time champion sent a video message that was played at the beginning of the conference call. “Ultimately I really cannot wait to return and play the US Open 2020,” she said, adding: “It’s going to be exciting.”
Will Top Players Show Up?
Allaster was asked about the difficulty of reining in top players to play the event, especially given the fact that Roland Garros will begin just two weeks after the US Open in a relatively safe environment, given how well France has done at minimizing Covid-19.
“We are going to have incredible star power for the Western and Southern and US Opens,” Allaster said. “And we know and we respect that all athletes are going to need to make this decision on their own. There are a lot of questions. We have 59 days until we open the tournament hotel. There will be ongoing conversations with athletes to help them understand the plan and then some, ultimately, will make their own decisions, just as they always do. We are confident that we do have a lot of players who want to compete.”