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Two players withdrew from the first New York event, the Western and Southern Open, after their physical trainer tested for the virus, but the big draw begins Saturday for the US Open’s forerunner.
By Christopher Clarey
When the Western and South Open begin on Saturday in Northeast Queens, it will be the first game with the top vital tennis name double since the 2012 Wimbledon tournament and the Olympic tennis festival played on the same well-maintained grass courts at the All Club of England.
But this double name is a long-planned opportunity, with more than seven years in progress.
The New York one conceived under duress, the coronavirus pandemic that forces U.S. tennis officials. To locate unconventional responses to bring the occasions of the tour back to the United States.
The result was to move the Western and South Open, which was held for a long time in Mason, Ohio, to Queens for this year and only this year. After a short two-day break, the U.S. Open, which begins on August 31.
Both occasions will be played in the United States. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, but everyone will use the same courts, which is partly an attempt to maintain different identities.
The Western and South Open, a combined men’s and women’s event, will use the grandstand as its headquarters, making no plans to use the country’s two largest venues: Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium. The US Open plans to use the grandstand for this year’s matches.
“When I first heard the concept of moving,” said Katie Haas, chief operating officer at western Southern Open, “of course I thought, “What? How will it work? “And then he prevents it and other people start talking about it, talking about it and getting everyone’s acceptance and collaboration, and it’s like, “Okay, we can do it. »»
It remains to be seen how well they can do this. Spectators will not be allowed in any of the tournaments, however, players and their staff began arriving on August 15.
Then, on Tuesday, the U.S. Tennis Association announced that a person in this had tested positive.
He turned out to be The Argentine physics teacher Juan Manuel Galván, who works with two players: Guido Pella from Argentina and Hugo Dellien from Bolivia.
Galván held in his room at one of the tournament’s Long Island hotels.
Through tactile research, we decided that the 35th Pella and 94th Dellien had had extensive contact with Galvanan, and were removed from the Western Southern Open: Pella from the main draw and Dellien from the leaderboard.
Since then, both players have negativeed the virus on several occasions, but will have to stay remote in their rooms for 14 days. They still have the ability to participate in the U.S. Open if they are approved after their period of isolation. But for now, they’re not allowed to practice or leave their quarters, which can make it less difficult to make best-of-five games if they return to action in New York.
“It’s bad luck that I assigned in the 1,400 tests they did,” Pella said in a video posted on social media. “But there’s still no other option to do everything we can to spend the two weeks temporarily and see if we can make it to the US Open.”
Novak Djokovic, the men’s No. 1, and other players lobbied for Pella and Dellien to play in the Western and Southern Open, that neither of them shared room with Galván and that neither had tested positive.
How to continue in a situation like this is one of the many issues of dispute between players and tournament and fitness officials in recent weeks.
Updated August 21, 2020
Here’s what happens as the global game slowly comes to life:
In the end, we decided that players would be automatically excluded from the tournament if they stayed in the same room with a team member who would have tested positive. But while players are not automatically deleted if they remain in another room, they are not guaranteed to be able to play even if their check is negative. Instead, it relies on the effects of contact-seeking, which surprised many competitors, adding Djokovic, who declared a U.S.T.A. The medical officer did not specify this in a recent call to the convention.
“That’s why a lot of players have been disappointed and disappointed, adding to me, when I see that Dellien and Pella are being treated this way,” Djokovic said. “It’s hard. I can’t point the hand at anyone. These kinds of cases are very delicate. Things are turning very fast.
The tap search policy was for resignation signed by players and team members prior to the tournament. Pella stated that he and Dellien were in close and common contact with Galvanán at a recent educational consultation in Miami. The touch search investigation also made us think that players did not wear a mask in some of those interactions with Galvan.
Men’s field officials have lobbied for Pella and Dellien to continue, but the final resolution was made through Officials from new York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
“I think they play, and that’s what most players think, I think 99%,” said Daniil Medvedev, the protective champion.
The qualifying tournament began on Thursday as masked players from men’s and women’s tours traveled on the vast, largely empty field.
“It’s hard at first,” said Stefanos Tsitsipas, sixth. “You stay coming and going from the hotel room and the place. I think it’s hard not to combine things a little bit.”
But Tsitsipas said he understood that the restrictions were “for the protection of all.”
The women’s tour resumed this month in Palermo, Italy, however, the Western and South Open is the first occasion of the men’s excursion after the five-month breakup through the pandemic and is also the first occasion of the men’s and women’s excursion.
Fifteen of the 20 most sensitive men are registered, in addition to Djokovic and No. 3 Dominic Thiem. Former number one Andy Murray, who seeks to return to the most sensible flight at 33 after hip surgery, will face American Frances Tiafoe in the first round.
The women’s occasion has 12 of the 20 most sensible, adding No. 3 Karolina Pliskova, No. four Sofia Kenin, No. nine Serena Williams, No. 10 Naomi Osaka and No. 13 Madison Keys, the women’s singles champion. “It’s strange to protect my name in Cincinnati and not on the courts in Cincinnati,” Keys said.
Coco Gauff, the 16-year-old notable American, will face Maria Sakkari, 21 in the first round. But six of the 10 most sensitive will be absent here and at the US Open, adding to number 1 Ashleigh Barty and number 2 Simona Halep.
“It still has to be tennis, asterisk or not,” Williams said. “I think this total year deserves an asterisk, because it’s such a special year, a story that never crossed in this world, to be honest, not this generation, not this life.”
The Western and South Open try to keep at least part of the tour adding a few Midwest touches.
The grandstand, for example, will house works of art that will link two bridges designed through John Roebling: the Brooklyn Bridge and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, which crosses the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Covington, Ky.
This month, Dick Clark, Director of Facilities at the Western-Southern Open, traveled to New York from Mason, Ohio, in a full-rent truck with gadgets from the same tournament location.
“We had to bring our referees’ chairs because we have LED panels attached to them and all the networks with our logos because the US Open doesn’t use the same and our players’ banks have the mark,” Haas said. “It’s a big truck.”
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