By AP – French tennis player Benoit Paire did a coronavirus test and was pulled from the box at the US Open, a user familiar with the scene told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Paire is the first player to test positive ahead of the Grand Slam tournament, which begins Monday as spectators amid the pandemic.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because Paire’s status had not been announced by the US Tennis Association. The USTA later issued a statement saying a player — whom it did not identify by name — “has been withdrawn” from the US Open after testing positive for COVID-19. The statement said 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 tracing will try to determine who might have been exposed to Paire and needs 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 US Open and the Western & Southern Open.
“There’s so many people involved in this tournament. The possibility that somebody is going to be positive is pretty high. I just wish all the best to Benoit. Hopefully nobody else is positive, as well. That’s the most important thing,” said Dominic Thiem, a three-time Grand Slam runner-up who is seeded 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 concluded on Saturday, is generally held in Ohio, however this year it has moved to the US Open site in Flushing Meadows. Players and their visitors were tested upon arrival and their remains returned for any of the events.
On August 20, the USTA announced positive control but did not identify who it belonged to, claiming only that it did not come from a player. Finally, two players, Argentina’s Guido Pella and Bolivian Hugo Dellien, said their physical trainer tested positive for COVID-19 and that’s why they were excluded from the Western and Southern Open.
Paire stopped his opener at the Western and Southern Open on August 22 by leading 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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