Using Their Platform…
Osaka, along with Coco Gauff of the US, attended Black Lives Matter protests. Frances Tiafoe and Sloane Stephens, among the concerned players from the US, spoke out in support of the demonstrations. In Belarus, Vera Lapko was among the Minsk marchers in mid-August, protesting the rigged election that put Alexander Lukashenko, the despot who has ruled the country for 26 years, in power once again. Ilya Ivashka, Victoria Azarenka and Daria Gavrilova offered encouragement on social media.
Words That Became Important…
A number of organizations award “Word of the Year” recognition. In tennis, a number of words/phrases deserved the honor. Included in the “new speak, new meaning” were – pandemic, quarantine, COVID-19, social-distancing and bubble/bubbling.
Aretha Franklin was a legendary soul, R&B, gospel, rock vocalist, whose music was always ahead of the times. Still, in 1985 when she recorded “Who’s Zoomin’ Who”, which became hit, no one could have guessed that an updated version of “Zoomin’” would become the “go to approach” for communicating and interviewing in 2020.
Testing The Bubbles
Not to make light of what took place, but the French combination of Benoit Paire and Kristina Mladenovic were regularly in the “Bubble And Testing” news. Paire qualified for the “Tester Of The Year” trophy while Mladenovic earned “Friends Can Be Trouble” recognition. The perversely talented Frenchman was in and out of the weekly “playing/not playing reports” after an odd trifecta when he received positive and negative test results in New York, Hamburg and Paris. The Frenchwoman should have an asterisk next to her name since she didn’t test positive. She made the mistake of playing cards with Paire at a player hotel in New York, which brought about her removal from the US Open Doubles, along with her partner, Timea Babos of Hungry.
From end of tournament play in the spring until late in the year, everyone was learning, in some cases, on a daily basis, something new about dealing with COVID-19. The attempts made by all the championships were conscientious when it came to testing and most of the follow-up. Mistakes resulted because of the complexity of pandemic issues that were faced by the US Open and Roland Garros.
But the most glaring “protocol collapse” happened in New York when the “Paire Group” – countrymen Adrian Mannarino, Grégoire Barrère, Richard Gasquet and Édouard Roger-Vasselin, along with Mladenovic, and two players from Belgium, Kirsten Flipkens and Ysaline Bonaventure – (people who spent time around him) were sanctioned. Problems resulted when the Open followed New York State guidelines, but the player hotels were in Nassau County. Different counties meant different COVID restrictions, which forced all of the players involved to sign a variety of waivers. The USTA, having not worked with healthcare officials in Nassau county, had to alter the rules. In the end, the “Paire Group” suffered.
At Roland Garros, Fernando Verdasco of Spain was forced to withdraw and so was Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia. Verdasco claimed his test result was a false positive. Dzumhur had to pull out because his Serbian coach Petar Popovic had tested positive. Both players discussed suing the Fédération Française de Tennis because the “play/not play” rules were changed allowing a competitor who could prove, he/she had previously been infected could then be allowed to participate.
Those who watched Alexander Zverev’s 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 fourth round Paris loss to Jannik Sinner of Italy could probably tell he wasn’t in top form. After the contest the reason became obvious when the German admitted to having a fever and not being able to breathe then concluding, “I shouldn’t have played”. But, later, he tested negative.
Sam Querrey of the US wryly observed that a true bubble would require “10,000 rooms” for players, teams and coaches, along with the entire hotel staff. As FFT Director General, Jean-Francois Vilotte, pointed out, “We do not think in terms of a sealed bubble”.
Paris Qualifying Firsts…
Renata Zarazúa played through the qualifying and put her name in the Mexican tennis history book. After defeating French junior Elsa Jacquemot, who won the Girls’ title, 6-1, 6-2, she became the first woman from her country since Angélica Gavaldón in 1994 to reach the second round in singles. There, Elena Svitolina, the No. 3 seeded Ukrainian, defeated her 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 in a well contested match.
Mayar Sherif, an intercollegiate tennis star at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, became the first Egyptian woman to qualify for a major. A 2020 Grand Slam Development Fund grant recipient, the No. 171 ranked player at the start of the tournament, proved to be formidable as she forced Karolína Plíšková, the No. 2 seeded Czech, to work overtime, in the first round, to secure a 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 win.
