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Two players withdrew from the first New York event, the Western and Southern Open, after their physical trainer tested positive for the virus, but the qualifying tournament began for the US Open forerunner.
By Christopher Clarey
When the Western and South Open begins on Saturday in Northeast Queens, it will be the first game of the top-of-the-line double tennis since the 2012 Wimbledon tournament and the Olympic tennis festival played on the same well-maintained grass courts at the All Club in 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 Southern Open, a 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 is unclear to what extent the occasions will unfold. 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.
Both players tested negative for the virus, 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 hit 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 player and tournament and fitness officials in recent weeks.
Updated August 21, 2020
Here’s what happens as the global game slowly comes to life:
“Before we came to New York, we had to explain a few things,” Djokovic said of the lead male players in an interview Tuesday, before Pella and Dellien were eliminated from the tournament.
In the end, we decided that players would be automatically excluded from the tournament if they were staying in the same room with a team member who had tested positive. But players are not automatically deleted if they do not remain in the same room as a team member. Instead, there is discretion.
Pella said he and Dellien had been in close and common contact with Galvanán during a recent educational consultation in Miami. 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.
“The Pella-Dellien scenario is unfortunate and I wish it had been resolved differently, but I’m glad it doesn’t cancel the opportunities for everyone,” said Brad Stine, a veteran coach working with the emerging American. Player Tommy Paul.
The qualifying tournament began on Thursday as masked players from men’s and women’s tours traveled on the vast, largely empty field.
“One hundred% respecting the rules,” Stine said. “Players spend time in mini golf, pickleball, hoop shooting. The automated food formula has been excellent.
The women’s tour resumed this month in Palermo, Italy, but the Western and South Open is the first time on the men’s tour after the five-month breakup through the pandemic and is also the first travel opportunity for men and women.
Fifteen of the 20 most sensitive men are registered, adding Djokovic, No. 3 Dominic Thiem and No. five Daniil Medvedev, who won the ohio name last year. 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. Coco Gauff, the 16-year-old notable American, will face 21st seed Maria Sakkari in the first round.
It will be, more than ever in this context, a check for the U.S. Open, but it will also be an occasion that seeks to remain connected to its Midwestern base.
The grandstand will house artwork that will link two bridges designed through John Roebling: the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and the John A. Roebling Hanging Bridge, which crosses the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Covington, Ky.
Before the afternoon session, tournament volunteers, price ticket holders and others will throw a Cincinnati-area virtual currency at the chair judge in New York before the official draw.
Some devices will also connect to the same site as the previous tournament. This month, Dick Clark, Director of Facilities at the Western-Southern Open, traveled to New York from Mason, Ohio, in a rental truck complete with appliances.
“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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