French tennis player Benoit Paire tested positive for coronavirus and was expelled from the U.S. Open on Sunday, a user familiar with the stage told The Associated Press.
Paire is the first player to test positive before the Grand Slam tournament, which begins Monday as spectators amid the pandemic.
The user spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because Paire’s prestige had not been announced through the American Tennis Association. Later, the USTA issued a saying that a player, whom he did not identify by a call, “was withdrawn” from the US Open after testing positive for COVID-19. He indicates that the player is asymptomatic.
Paire, 31, ranked 17th and will face Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak in the first circular on Tuesday. Paire’s position in the draw was held by Marcel Granollers, 149th, who now plays in Majchrzak.
Contact tracking will try to determine who might have been exposed to Paire and deserve to be quarantined.
His positive check was first reported through the French newspaper L’Equipe.
The person who spoke to the AP said Paire’s result was the second that came back positive out of more than 7,000 tests for COVID-19 administered by the USTA so far as part of its “controlled environment” for the U.S. Open and the Western & Southern Open.
“There are so many other people interested in this tournament. The option of someone being positive is high. I only wish Benoit all the best. I hope no one else is positive too. That’s the most important thing,” said Dominic Thiem, a three-time Grand Slam finalist and no. 2 at the US Open.
“I don’t think there is a more position in the world now than here. Maybe you can lock yourself up somewhere in a cave or whatever, I don’t know, in the middle of the sea, ”Thiem said. “Otherwise it’s great here. We are in a bubble.”
The Western and Southern Open, which ended on Saturday, is generally held in Ohio, but this year it has moved to the U.S. venue. Open at Flushing Meadows. Players and their visitors were tested upon arrival and their remains returned for any of the events.
On Aug. 20, the USTA announced one positive test but did not identify whose it was, saying only it was not from a player. Eventually, two players — Argentina’s Guido Pella and Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien — said it was their fitness trainer who had tested positive for COVID-19 and that is why they were dropped from the Western & Southern Open.
Paire stopped playing his opening match in the Western & Southern Open on Aug. 22 while trailing 6-1, 1-0 against Borna Coric.
Paire ranks 22rd, has 3 ATP titles and reached the fourth circular of the U.S. Open in 2015, matching its functionality in any Grand Slam tournament.
He lost at the time in New York last year.
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