By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, September 5, 2020
Kristina Mladenovic's frustrating US Open took a turn for the worse today: the top-seeded team of Mladenovic and Timea Babos has been withdrawn from the doubles draw.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Kristina Mladenovic's New York nightmare continues.
The top-seeded team of Mladenovic and Timea Babos has been withdrawn from the US Open doubles draw due to a Nassau County quarantine that prohibits anyone whose had "prolonged close contact to a person who previously tested positive for COVID-19" from commuting the the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
More: Delayed By Health Department, Mannarino Permitted to Play US Open
Mladenovic is one of seven players who participated in a card game with Frenchman Benoit Paire, who later tested positive for Coronavirus and was withdrawn from the US Open the day before the tournament began.
The USTA announced the withdrawal of Australian Open doubles champions Babos and Mladenovic today—a day after Frenchman Adrian Mannarino's third-round match vs. Alexander Zverev was delayed for two-and-a-half-hours before New York State Health Department officials ultimately permitted Mannarino to play.
In a statement, the USTA said Nassau County public health officials issued a quarantine preventing travel to the US Open site. Mladenovic and several players are staying at the player hotel in Garden City, New York.
Here's the complete USTA statement on the Mladenovic/Babos withdrawal:
Public health officials of Nassau County, N.Y., have issued quarantine notices for all individuals who had prolonged close contact to a person who previously tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. As the players are staying in Nassau County, the quarantine notices prevent any of these individuals from commuting to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City. The USTA is obligated to adhere to government guidance at the State, City and County level. All persons who were identified as having prolonged close contact with the infected player will quarantine in their rooms for the remainder of their quarantine period. Kristina Mladenovic is one of these individuals, and as the Women’s Doubles competition has begun, the women’s doubles team of Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Babos has been withdrawn from the US Open.
Seven players who came into contact with Paire during a card game will be confined to the US Open's bubble within a bubble until September 12th, French publication L'Equipe reports.
Five French players—Grégoire Barrere, Édouard Roger-Vasselin, Mladenovic, Mannarino and Richard Gasquet—as well as Belgians Kirsten Flipkens and Ysaline Bonaventure cannot leave New York until September 11th or September 12th, according to the L'Equipe report. That September 12th date is 14 days after the players played cards with Paire, who tested positive for Coronavirus.
Paire was withdrawn from the US Open due to a positive COVID-19 test. But Paire took to his Instagram account to say that he then tested negative on Monday and subsequently suggested on Instagram Live he may have suffered a false-positive test.
French Fed Cup hero Mladenovic blew a 6-1, 5-1 lead and four match points suffering an epic collapse in the US Open second round.
In her Grand Slam debut, 20-year-old Varvara Gracheva roared back winning 12 of the final 13 games in an improbable 1-6, 7-6, 6-0 comeback conquest of a gutted Mladenovic, who conceded "At 5-2, I just collapsed. I have nothing more to say, I’m completely devastated.”
Asked about living in the USTA's "enhanced protocol plan", essentially a bubble within a bubble for those who interacted with Paire, Mladenovic trashed the experience as "a nightmare" and said she felt like "a prisoner."
“We have no freedom of movement, of identity, of nothing," Mladenovic said after her singles setback. "I have the impression that we are prisoners, that we are criminals. For the slightest movement, you have to ask permission, while we are tested every day, we have had thirty negative tests!
“If I had known that playing cards for 40 minutes with a player who tested positive, but ultimately negative, would have resulted in these consequences, I would never have set foot in this tournament.”
Now, Mladenovic is out of the tournament and likely facing a quarantine in her hotel room until she's permitted to leave New York City next week.