The prospect of the US Open taking place later this year remains 50/50 with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) confirming when they will make a final decision.
All tennis tournaments have been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic until July, but the suspension could be extended further in the coming weeks. The virus has had a major impact on the grand slams. The French Open has been suspended until September and Wimbledon is cancelled. Making it the first time the grass-court major has been axed from the calendar since 1945.
As for the US Open, it is still up in the air what could happen. America has recorded more deaths related to COVID-19 than any other country. According to the latest figures provided by John Hopkins University, there have been 28,364 deaths from an estimated 637,000 cases. Despite the current situation, the USTA are still hopeful of holding the event between August 31 to September 14.
“We don’t have a hard date set yet (to make a decision), just because things are changing so fast,” USTA Chief Executive Michael Dowse told The New York Times.
“You can imagine the runway to ramp up the U.S. Open is not a short runway, so I’m thinking probably the latter part of June, sometime in that June time frame.”
Despite the optimism, New York mayor Bill de Blasio has said he is ‘not confident’ that mass gatherings could occur in the state over the coming months that also include August. The US Open also hosts a qualifying tournament that gets underway on the 24th of that month. In 2019 a total of 853,227 people attended the tournament over a three-week period.
“We’re confident at this moment we can reopen the schools in September, but we’re not confident about June, we’re not confident about July and we’re not confident about August that we could have people gathering together again in large numbers,” de Basio told reporters on Tuesday.
One solution for the grand slam to go ahead could be to play the event behind closed doors. A concept supported by reigning US Open champion Rafael Nadal. The Telegraph has reported that there are a series of reasons why the USTA is eager to host the event in some format. In their most recent accounts, the governing body made $400m in revenues from the US Open. Unlike Wimbledon, the event is not covered by infectious disease insurance or anything similar. Finally, one of the main New York-based sponsors J.P Morgan is rumoured to be against the idea of potentially relocating the event in a one-off later this year.
At present an indoor facility at the site of the US Open has been transformed into a temporary hospital to help treat those affected by COVID-19.
