After how well the US Open turned out in terms of protocols, the Roland Garros organization has published its own a few days after the start of the preliminary phase matches. Accommodation, medical tests, accompaniment during the tournament or training place are some of those mentioned in his statement.
-Accommodation during the two weeks of competition:
The tournament organization has reported that all players will stay in two exclusive hotels for these athletes, rejecting the possibility that tourists can stay in said facilities. These hotels are the Pullman Paris Tour Eiffel and the Novotel Paris Tour Eiffel. But … how will the distribution of these facilities be done? Well, very easy, the 60 best players will stay at the Pullman, while the rest of the players, the tennis players who play doubles and those in the preliminary phase, will stay at the Novotel.
-Protocols before the start of the tournament:
The tennis players who will play the preliminary phase next week are required to arrive in Paris four days before the competition begins. All of them will undergo two PCR tests, one upon arrival and another after 48 hours, to show that they do not have the virus in their body. In this way, Carlos Alcaraz, Pedro Martínez Portero, Mario Vilella, Bernabé Zapata or Tommy Robredo, among others, will have to arrive in France in the next few hours.
For the players who will play the main draw, they have the obligation to appear three days before the start of the tournament. To do this, as with the players from the previous phase, they will have to pass two controls. A PCR test upon arrival at the hotel and another test 48 hours later. Then, as already reported a few months ago, the tournament organization will test the tennis players every five days if they continue in contention during the competition.
-Company of the players during their stay:
If a player tests positive for coronavirus, the alarms would automatically go off, and that tennis player will have to spend a 14-day quarantine in his hotel room, and therefore, will be eliminated from the tournament. In addition, the tournament organization issued a statement advising players not to share rooms in order to avoid multiple infections.
If a member of the player’s coaching staff tests positive for COVID-19, the player would immediately need to be tested. If it tests positive, it would obviously be eliminated, while if it came out negative it would be under monitoring. If a tennis player has shared a room with a positive, they will automatically be eliminated as the social distancing rule is not respected. For this reason, the tournament advises players to sleep alone in their rooms.
As with the US Open, only two accreditations will be allowed for singles players. For doubles players, qualifiers and juniors, there will only be one.
-Training:
“At the Roland Garros facilities it is only possible to train if the player has a match that day. If he did not have it, he would have to go to the Jean Bouin center, a center enabled so that tennis players can train without any problems.
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-TennisNews-e1525932928279.png114150Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2020-09-20 17:27:252020-09-20 17:27:27The protocols for Roland Garros 2020
Emotions can run high and get the best of any of us in intense situations. Keeping them in check is part of the battle.
On a tennis court, when players lose their cool, heat-of-the-moment reactions have been known to lead to the most unfortunate of outcomes: a match default. On Sunday, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic became the center of a US Open disqualification sure to be talked about in the years to come.
Here are five defaults that are remembered for being on the wrong side of history.
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-goss-e1555388932669.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2020-09-14 17:48:332020-09-14 17:55:00FIVE NOTABLE DEFAULTS: DJOKOVIC IN COMPANY WITH NALBANDIAN AND HENMAN
After months of hesitation and uncertainty in the tennis world, a welcome development arrived on Thursday: the men’s and women’s singles draws for the United States Open.
For many fans, the bracket for the tournament, which is set to begin on Monday, was tangible confirmation that the professional tennis tour is indeed back. Although there have been plenty of exhibition matches, and some sanctioned tournaments, they have all felt like practice runs, tests to make sure the Grand Slam events could return. And now, after the cancellation of Wimbledon and the postponement of the French Open, they have.
Although some big names will be missing from this year’s U.S. Open, this draw also includes the return of two veterans. On the men’s side, there is Andy Murray, who last participated in singles at a major tournament in 2019, at the Australian Open. He then had his second hip operation in a year and openly questioned whether he would be able to return to professional tennis. But he was back playing singles tournaments by the end of 2019, before a pelvic injury kept him out of this year’s Australian Open.
In his first match at the U.S. Open, he will face Yoshihito Nishioka, a 24-year-old left-hander with a similar, physical style of play.
On the women’s side, an equally formidable former champion is returning: Kim Clijsters, who is returning from a second retirement to play in her first Grand Slam event since the 2012 U.S. Open — where she and Murray were the singles champions. In the first round, she will face Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No. 21 seed, who was 2 years old when Clijsters played in her first WTA event.
Aside from sentimental favorites, the draw revealed the most compelling potential matchups and story lines of the tournament. Here are five takeaways from the draw announcement:
Djokovic has a comfortable road ahead.
Novak Djokovic, the men’s No. 1., has openly stated that he wished Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, his two main rivals, would have joined him at this year’s U.S. Open. But Federer is still recovering from knee surgery and Nadal opted not to participate because of coronavirus concerns, leaving a relatively simple path to the finals for Djokovic.
His hardest potential matchup is against the seventh-seeded David Goffin, who has beaten Djokovic once in eight meetings, and that victory came in 2017 on the red clay of Monte Carlo, Goffin’s favored surface. It seems unlikely that Djokovic’s run would stop anytime before the semifinals at the least.
An American generational battle looms.
Sloane Stephens, left, and Serena Williams at Indian Wells in 2015.Credit…Julian Finney/Getty Images
Serena Williams could run into Sloane Stephens, a fellow American and the 2017 U.S. Open champion, in the third round. Stephens has been sometimes viewed as a potential successor to Williams, but has only won once in their six head-to-head matches.
This would be their first meeting since the 2015 French Open, and Serena will hope to push past Stephens as she pursues a record 24th Grand Slam title.
Sofia Kenin faces a tough draw.
The 2020 Australian Open champion, Sofia Kenin could easily be considered one of the favorites to win in Flushing. But she faces an incredibly difficult quarter of the draw, one filled with former champions as well as exciting, young challengers. Kenin, the No. 2 seed, could meet Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, who reached the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open, in the third round.
In the round of 16, either the 16th-seeded Elise Mertens or Kim Clijsters will most likely be awaiting her. And her quarterfinal matchup could be any number of stiff opponents, including the veterans Victoria Azarenka and Venus Williams, or highly ranked players in their prime, like Karolina Muchova and Johanna Konta.
Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka could entertain us all again.
Last year, a 15-year-old Coco Gauff stormed into the spotlight with scintillating performances at Wimbledon and kept it up in the early rounds at the U.S. Open. Naomi Osaka, the 2018 champion, defeated her in the third round and, in one of the tournament’s most memorable scenes, invited a visibly emotional Gauff to join her for the on-court interview after the match.
This year, the two could get a rematch in the third round at Flushing. The two also met in the third round of the Australian Open this year, with Gauff winning in two sets of incredible tennis. Here’s hoping we’ll get to see a thrilling matchup between the two young stars again.
A quarter of the men’s draw is packed with last year’s semifinalists.
Daniil Medvedev, left, and Grigor Dimitrov faced off in the semifinals last year. This time, they’re in the same quarter.Credit…Ben Solomon for The New York Times
Only one of last year’s semifinalists, Rafael Nadal, will not be participating in this year’s tournament. The other three are packed into one quarter of the draw: Daniil Medvedev, Matteo Berrettini, and Grigor Dimitrov all have reasons to believe that they can match their runs from last year, but the draw will make that task difficult.
In the same quarter is Andrey Rublev, who reached the round of 16 last year as an unseeded player before losing to Berrettini in three hard-fought sets.
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-news-e1555388843470.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2020-08-28 15:20:062020-08-28 15:20:09US Open Draw Lacks Some Stars, but Not Story Lines
Angela Buxton, half of an outcast tennis duo! She was Jewish, Althea Gibson was black, and they forged a champion partnership. Buxton was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame in 2015.
They were both outsiders in the starched white world of elite 1950s tennis, superb players but excluded from tournaments and clubs and shunned on the circuit because of their heritage. Angela Buxton, a white, Jewish Englishwoman, was a granddaughter of Russian Jews who had fled the pogroms in the early 1900s; Althea Gibson, a black American, was born in a sharecropper’s shack in South Carolina and grew up in Harlem.
They eventually found each other and forged a powerful doubles partnership. In 1956, they won the French Championships and Wimbledon, the jewel in the crown of a sport that had hardly welcomed them.
The Duchess of Kent, centre, presents the trophy for the Ladies’ Doubles title to Angela Buxton, left, and Althea Gibson, right, following their victory at Wimbledon, England, 1956. AP
But for all Buxton’s prowess on the court — she was ranked in the women’s top 10 in the mid-1950s — she is best remembered for the long-lasting support and encouragement she gave Gibson, the first great black player in women’s tennis, the first black to win Wimbledon and, for a time, the No. 1 ranked female player in the world.
Buxton died at 85 on August 14 at her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the International Tennis Federation announced.
When Buxton and Gibson met at a tournament in New Delhi in 1955, Gibson was so discouraged by the barriers she faced as the only black player in the top echelons of tennis that she was ready to give up the game.
“When I came on the scene, the other players wouldn’t speak to Althea much less play with her quite simply because she was black,” Buxton told Sally Jacobs, author of a forthcoming biography of Gibson. “She was completely isolated,” she added. “I was, too, because of being Jewish. So it was a good thing we found one another.”
Buxton’s coach paired the two as doubles partners. In 1956, the same year they won in Paris and at Wimbledon, Buxton reached the singles finals at Wimbledon, losing to Shirley Fry. When Gibson won Wimbledon the following year, Buxton made the floral dress that Gibson wore to the winners’ ball.
“They were pictured dining together in a magazine snapshot, a white and a black sitting at a table in the clubhouse at De Coubertin Stadium in Paris, laughing as if they were in on a joke that the rest of the world didn’t understand,” Bruce Schoenfield wrote in The Match: Althea Gibson and a Portrait of a Friendship (2005).
Buxton suffered from a chronic wrist condition that forced her to cut short her career in 1957 at 22. But her successful pairing with Gibson left Gibson in demand as a doubles partner.
Buxton went on to mentor young players and write about tennis and she became a lifelong friend of Gibson’s. In 1995, when Gibson was living alone in New Jersey, sick and destitute, she telephoned her old friend, whom she called “Angie baby”.
“She said she was calling to say goodbye,” Buxton told Jacobs. “She said she was going to kill herself. I said, ‘Now, wait just a minute.’”
Buxton wrote a letter to Tennis Week magazine describing Gibson’s plight and asked for contributions. Money poured in from around the world. Jacobs said in an email that Buxton’s actions had helped pull Gibson out of her slump, enabled her to buy a silver Cadillac and encouraged her to go on living. She died in 2003 at 76.
In honour of her support, Buxton was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame in 2015.
Angela Buxton was born on August 16, 1934, in Liverpool. Her father, Harry Buxton, was a jewellery trader in Leeds; after amassing a windfall at gambling, he bought a string of movie theatres. Her mother, Violet (Greenberg) Buxton, was a homemaker.
In a press release issued on Friday, the ATP has revised its provisional calendar, adding tournaments after Roland Garros, including the Nitto ATP Finals, as well as moving the Rome Masters a week earlier, in place of the previously canceled Madrid Masters.
“Tennis is starting to find its way back and, while we must first and foremost look after the health and safety of everyone involved, we are hopeful we will be able to retain these playing opportunities and produce a strong finish to the season,” said Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman. “I would like to commend the tournaments for their continued commitment, flexibility and resourcefulness in finding solutions to operate under these challenging circumstances.”
The calendar is now:
The season-ending ATP Finals will be held without fans; per Simon Cambers, some spectators may be allowed, but it entirely depends on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Per the ATP:
“Under the updated schedule the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, will now be scheduled one week earlier, in the week previously assigned to the recently cancelled Mutua Madrid Open, and will have a Monday final. The Rome event will be followed by the ATP 500 Hamburg European Open in the week prior to Roland Garros.”
In addition, the tour’s traditional European indoor swing will take place, though it will not include Basel. Because of that, St. Petersburg will temporarily become an ATP 500-level tournament.
“The updated schedule includes the final section of the calendar comprising the European indoor s”wing, including events in St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg Open), Antwerp (European Open), Moscow (VTB Kremlin Cup), Vienna (Erste Bank Open), Paris (Rolex Paris Masters), Sofia (Sofia Open) ahead of the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in London. Among the changes, the St. Petersburg Open will be elevated to ATP 500 status for its 2020 edition.”
Milan’s Next Gen ATP Finals however, will not be staged in 2020. Jannik Sinner defeated Alex de Minaur for the title last November.
In a rather pleasing coincidence, Rod Laver was born on August 9—one day after Roger Federer’s birthday. Add to this that another tennis great, Pete Sampras, was born on August 12.
Laver, of course, is the elder of this titanic trio, the man the other two have long revered for everything from his game to his grace. As much as Federer, Sampras and the entire world wish to honor Laver turning 82, he himself this year has commenced another celebration. True to the collaborative spirit of Laver’s homeland, this one’s a team effort.
Late 2019 marked the publication of a new book authored by Laver. His story is only a small part of it. Laver’s tale is called “The Golden Era: The Extraordinary Two Decades When Australians Ruled the Tennis World.” Written with the assistance of Australian journalist Larry Writer (yes, that’s really his name), the book is an in-depth chronicle of 1950-’75, the years when Australian tennis ruled the world.
“This was our story, our nation’s story,” Laver told me, “and I wanted to tell it all. These people are all my friends and many of them have been my rivals. It was fun to dig into all this incredible history and bring it to life once again.”
Almost 40 years ago, John McEnroe screamed four words of fury at Wimbledon: “You cannot be serious!”
That infamous outburst – in tandem with a supreme talent which led to six Grand Slam singles titles – created a ‘rebel without a cause’ persona which boosted the American’s profile beyond tennis.
Not that he always felt it was to his benefit.
“I became what I would say was like a cigarette smoker that couldn’t kick the habit,” McEnroe said in a 2018 interview. “It felt like I was doing it for the wrong reasons.”
One reason was entertainment.
With ATP and WTA events returning behind closed doors this month, a leading sports psychologist believes the lack of fans is likely to see fewer controversial outbursts.
“The expression of anger can be a strategic way of releasing frustration, but it can also be a communication function and a way of entertaining the fans,” says Andy Lane, who has worked with elite athletes across various sports for over 30 years.
“When there is no crowd, you’re not frustrated because you’re losing in front of a crowd, you’re not communicating to anyone other than your opponent, and you’re not trying to entertain a crowd.
“Without the expectation of fans, it is like walking out to a training match. They are walking in cold without any noise to gee them up, so they are relaxed when they get on to court and they will go through their pre-set routines.
“That means angry outbursts will be less likely. If you do see any, they are more likely to be pre-planned because fans usually fuel these acts.”
Why are people are entertained by anger?
Few things pump up a tennis crowd like seeing a raging player expending a whole load of negative energy.
Players get annoyed at many things – but mainly by their own failure to execute the shots they practise every day.
Another trigger is a perceived injustice by an official – like that which led to McEnroe’s rant during his Wimbledon first-round match against Tom Gullikson in 1981 or, more recently, Serena Williams’ outburst during the 2018 US Open final against Naomi Osaka.
Serena Williams was docked a point and then a game by umpire Carlos Ramos for verbal abuse in the 2018 US Open final. She was later fined $17,000 (£13,100) by the USTA
This behaviour is not condoned by the tennis authorities, who can penalise the offenders competitively and financially.
Yet it can bring new eyes to the sport by providing an extra element of entertainment.
“Humans connect very well to emotions and anger – the red mist of losing control is something we all get,” says Lane, a professor of sports psychology at the University of Wolverhampton.
“So when you see someone so good doing it you connect closely – and many enjoy watching it.”
Some players become better known to a wider sporting audience for isolated outbursts rather than their on-court achievements.
For many, Argentine David Nalbandian is defined by kicking an advertising hoarding at Queen’s in 2012, injuring a line judge. Russian Mikhail Youzhny cut his head during a 2008 tournament after hitting himself with his racquet.
More recently, clips of Czech former world number one Karolina Pliskova whacking a hole in an umpire’s chair and then-ATP Finals champion Alexander Zverev destroying a racquet at the Australian Open were widely spread on digital platforms.
Look how happy they are! One fan gets Zverev’s broken racquet as a momento of her trip to Melbourne Park
Racquet smashes become part of the entertainment. Marcos Baghdatis was egged on by a cheering Melbourne crowd when he demolished four in the space of a minute during an Australian Open defeat by Stan Wawrinka in 2012.
“It is child-like. It is relatable,” says Lane. “For the players, it is a fine balance between squashing down the emotion and carrying the bad shots into the next game.
“Not many players lose their cool during a point, they lose it at the end of a game. It is a strategic way of refocusing.
“It tends to be a racquet smash because that’s the only thing they can ‘blame’; they don’t have any team-mates to be angry with.”
How audiences are still attracted to controversy
When McEnroe screamed ‘You cannot be serious’ at umpire Edward James after disputing a line call during that match against Gullikson, it became one of Wimbledon’s most famous moments.
It has spawned a million punchlines, countless impressions and became the title of one of McEnroe’s books.
The clip has received almost 1.5m YouTube views via the Wimbledon and ESPN channels in the past five years.
“McEnroe was a showbusiness player who used anger as a crowd puller,” says Lane, also a consultant for the Centre for Health and Human Performance in London.
“I think Nick Kyrgios has got a bit of that in him, even though he might not admit it. And because of it, people have heard of him, whereas they won’t have heard about players around him in the rankings.”
That is supported by the digital data gathered by sports analytics platform Hookit.
Despite never being ranked inside the world’s top 10 nor past a Grand Slam quarter-final, the Australian has 2.4m followers on social media platforms.
Only five players in the men’s and women’s top 10s have more – Rafael Nadal (39.8m), Roger Federer (35.3m), Williams (28.7m), Novak Djokovic (23.1m) and Simona Halep (3.6m).
In 2020, Kyrgios has more social engagement (more than 5.7m likes, comments, and shares) than everyone in the top 10s other than Djokovic (24.5m), Nadal (22.5m), Williams (17.2m) and Federer (14.9m).
As well as social media, this online interest also translates to the BBC Sport website and app, where stories involving Kyrgios attract sizeable audiences.
The post-match interview at Wimbledon 2019 where Kyrgios said he “wanted to hit” Nadal with a shot was seen by almost one million people in the UK alone, making it the website’s fourth most-read tennis story of the fortnight.
Two months later, another controversial incident at the Cincinnati Masters – where Kyrgios smashed two racquets and called umpire Fergus Murphy a “potato” – attracted seven times the typical number of views for a tennis video on BBC Sport.
One of the website and app’s biggest tennis stories in recent years was Williams wagging her finger at umpire Carlos Ramos while calling him a “liar” and a “thief” in the 2018 US Open final. The BBC Sport story was read by more than two million people in the UK.
The incident helped the match attract an average of 3.1m television viewers in the United States, more than a 50% hike on the following day’s men’s final, and resulted in headlines and analysis across the world from non-tennis media as well as tennis journalists.
How marketing fuels controversial moments
At Wimbledon in 1977, four years before McEnroe’s infamous outburst, Nike founder Phil Knight was looking for a new “horse to back” in the tennis world.
American tennis officials warned him to stay away from McEnroe. Why? “Because he is a hothead,” they said.
Knight described in his autobiography how he “fell madly in love” with the New Yorker and signed him up the following year.
“Nike has a long history of creating personas that are bigger than life, like LeBron James, Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan,” says Kurt Badenhausen, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, who specialises in the business of sport.
“McEnroe was a wildly successful and charismatic player in the biggest market in the world.
“But he was also one of the biggest players of his generation because of the way Nike marketed him as the bad boy of tennis.”
The current incumbent of the role is Kyrgios, whose major deals include Nike, Yonex and Beats By Dre.
According to Hookit’s analysis, he has generated £310,000 of value for brands in 2020 with only Federer (£340,000) generating more.
“There is an argument right now that a lot of the players on the men’s tour are indistinguishable to the casual fan, once you get past the big three and Andy Murray,” says Badenhausen.
“A guy like Kyrgios stands out, he’s edgy, he’s walking that fine line and for Nike they can find a way that makes sense to use him.
“People recognise how talented he is, but how maddening he is. For Nike, if a guy like that can put it together and win Grand Slam titles, he is very marketable.”
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-news-e1555388843470.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2020-08-02 17:27:382020-08-02 17:28:59BBC: Why a lack of fans could mean better behaviour on court
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — No. 1-ranked Ash Barty is skipping the first tennis major since January after deciding it’s too risky to travel for the U.S. Open during the coronavirus pandemic.
The 24-year-old Australian is the highest-profile player so far to opt out of the Aug. 31-Sept. 13 Grand Slam tournament in New York because of the global health crisis.
“My team and I have decided that we won’t be travelling to the … Western & Southern Open and the U.S. Open this year,” Barty said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press on Thursday. “I love both events so this was a difficult decision, but there are still significant risks involved due to COVID-19 and I don’t feel comfortable putting my team and I in that position.
“I wish the USTA all the best for the tournaments and I look forward to being back in the U.S. next year.”
Barty is yet to decide if she’ll defend the French Open title she won last year for her breakthrough singles major. The clay-court Grand Slam event was postponed earlier in the year and rescheduled to start Sept. 27, after the U.S. Open.
Barty reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in January, the only major tennis tournament completed this year.
Australia’s closed international borders would make it difficult for Barty to travel overseas during the pandemic. Technically, Barty would have to receive permission from the government to travel abroad, and flight options are limited. Upon returning to Australia, travelers face a mandatory two weeks in quarantine.
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-TennisNews-e1525932928279.png114150Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2020-08-01 08:37:362020-08-01 08:37:38NOT WORTH THE RISKS: WTA NO. 1 ASH BARTY PASSES ON PLAYING US OPEN
We had so much fun in July hosting the first seniors tournament post Covid19, that we are going to do it again.
We understand that not every club and committee are able to host their tournament due to the restrictions imposed, and while we are happy to help or give some advice to help these groups with their Covid Safe Plans, we also know our TNSW members want to play tennis and catch up with friends on the court.
Central Coast Seniors, with Wyong Tennis are hosting for this year only an August event that we hope you all enjoy.
Please contact Craig Edwards 0412 185 130 with any questions.
Many players have suffered financial losses this year due to the cancellation of Wimbledon, but the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) has come to the party in a big way as they will pay out £10m in prize money to the 620 players who would have taken part in the 2020 Championships.
Wimbledon was cancelled for the first time since World War II as tennis was forced to go on a hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, AELTC has provided some relief as they will distribute £10m to more than 600 players based on their world rankings with the move coming on the back of insurance policies paying out in the event of a pandemic.
Based on the ATP and WTA Rankings: • 224 players who would have competed in qualifying will each receive £12,500 • 256 players who would have competed in main draw singles will each receive £25,000 • 120 players who would have competed in main draw doubles will each receive £6,250 • 16 players who would have competed in the wheelchair events will each receive £6,000 • 4 players who would have competed in the quad wheelchair events will each receive £5,000
“Immediately following the cancellation of The Championships, we turned our attention to how we could assist those who help make Wimbledon happen,” AELTC Chief Executive Richard Lewis said.
“We know these months of uncertainty have been very worrying for these groups, including the players, many of whom have faced financial difficulty during this period and who would have quite rightly anticipated the opportunity to earn prize money at Wimbledon based on their world ranking.”
The U.S. Open tennis tournament will take place as scheduled, but it will not include fans, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday.
The event, which has been a big revenue driver for the state, will take place Aug. 31 to Sept. 13 at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.
The United States Tennis Association issued a statement saying it’s excited New York approved its plan to hold the tournament on time.
“We recognize the tremendous responsibility of hosting one of the first global sporting events in these challenging times, and we will do so in the safest manner possible, mitigating all potential risks. We now can give fans around the world the chance to watch tennis’ top athletes compete for a US Open title, and we can showcase tennis as the ideal social distancing sport,” Mike Dowse, USTA CEO, said in a statement.
Cuomo outlined some of the safety measures that will be necessary to hold an event of this caliber.
“The USTA will take extraordinary precautions to protect players and staff, including robust testing, additional cleaning, extra locker room space and dedicated housing and transportation,” Cuomo said in his daily news conference.
However, not everyone is happy with the decision to hold the iconic tournament. Top players including Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have publicly expressed their concerns.
With New York being the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., temporary hospitals were set up at the Flushing facility.
“Most of the players I have talked with were quite negative on whether they would go there,” Djokovic said in an interview with Serbia’s state broadcaster RTS on Tuesday.
Djokovic said the restrictions in place would be “extreme” and “not sustainable.”
Nick Kyrgios called it “selfish” to hold the U.S. Open.
“I’ll get my hazmat suit ready for when I travel from Australia and then have to quarantine for 2 weeks on my return,” he tweeted Monday.
The U.S. Open tennis tournament brings in $400 million in revenue annually, which accounts for 80% of the USTA’s yearly total. More than 700,000 fans attended the tournament last year from all over the world. The event generates business to the area’s hotels, restaurants and the greater local economy.
Source: CNBC
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High level descriptors of three levels (Levels A, B, C) of activities and associated hygiene measures are recommended. Detailed descriptions of recommended sport specific activities at each level are outlined in Appendices A and B.
Tennis Level A: Running/aerobic/agility training (solo), resistance training (solo), skills training (solo) — e.g. serving only, hitting with ball machine.
Tennis Level B: Full training on court, singles or doubles.
https://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/POST-news-e1555388843470.png152200Robhttps://www.manlylawn.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/manly-lawn-tennis-club-logo.pngRob2020-05-10 15:33:172020-05-10 15:33:20AIS Framework for Rebooting Sport - Summary
