As quarterfinals day was drawing to a close in the Flushing Meadows bubble, at around 10p.m. on Wednesday evening the tournament management sent a message that all Thursday matches for the Western&Southern Open were going to be postponed to Friday.
It all had started a few hours early when Japanese star Naomi Osaka announced on her social media that she was not going to play her semifinal against Elise Mertens.
“Before I am an athlete I am a black woman. […] if I can get a conversation started in a majority white sport I consider that a sport in the right direction. Watching the continued genocide of Black people at the hand of the police is honestly making me sick to my stomach. […] When will it ever be enough?”
During the afternoon, the NBA decided to postpone the three scheduled playoff games after the Milwaukee Bucks had decided not to play in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, following the events that had unfolded last Sunday in Ketosha, Wisconsin, not far from Milwaukee. A 29-year-old African American man named Jacob Blacke had been shot and left palalyzed by a police officer, unleashing a new wave of protests against the violent behavior of the police force against African-American people.
The initiative was quickly followed by other professional leagues throughout the U.S.: by Wednesday evening the WNBA, the Major League Soccer and the Major League Baseball all had matches postponed.
At around 11 p.m., New York time, the USTA, the ATP Tour and the WTA issued an official statement confirming that they had decided “to recognize this moment in time by pausing tournament play at the Western&Southern Open on Thursday, August 27”.
