Hungarian tennis star Timea Babos has lashed out at officials at the US Open over the removal of doubles partner Kristina Mladenovic from the tournament.
The duo were the top seeds in the doubles draw at the New York major but was removed from the tournament on Saturday following a ruling by health officials in Nassau County where one of the players hotels is located. As a result of a new order, Mladenovic must stay inside her hotel room and is prohibited to leave until her quarantine period is over after coming in close contact with Benoit Paire. Who tested positive for the virus on the eve of the Grand Slam starting.
Paire has since tested negative for the virus and so far all those who have been linked to him in the contact tracing process have not tested positive. Leaving a furious Babos to hit out at officials over the handling of the situation. Prior to Mladenovic’s removal, she signed a new waiver which restricted her movements within the bubble so she can continue playing prior to the new ruling coming into force.
“I’m just starting to realise what happened and I just don’t understand. It’s terribly unfair all over, I don’t see any acceptable reason why this should have been the case,” Babos wrote on Instagram.
“Benoit Paire’s PCR test was positive for about 10 days (after 4 negative), but has received negative results in recent days. Other people close to him have never had a positive test. For me 4, while for Kiki had 11, I say again 11, negative Covid 19 tests. Yet we were excluded.”
The world No.3 doubles player has also hit out at what she perceives as double standards after Adrian Mannarino, who is part of the ‘bubble inside bubble’ group, was allowed to play his third round match on Friday. That followed a lengthy discussion between the USTA and local authorities which delayed his match by three hours. The reason why he was allowed to play is because at the time he was in Queen’s which is located outside of Nassau County.
“We were disqualified after everyone (from the bubble in bubble group) played all their matches, only we were left in the race. They were already vacillating on Friday to let Mannarino play, he was let that day, not us the next day,” Babos protested.
“Simple injustice! Incomprehensible! It’s not fair and I could list more.”
The USTA has released a statement saying that they are ‘obligated to adhere to government guidance at the state, city and county level.’ Although it is unclear as to why this decision has been made seven days into the US Open.
Mladenovic herself is yet to publicly comment on the situation. Although she has commented on Babos’ post by uploading a picture of a heart. The duo are the reigning doubles champions at both the French Open and Australian Open.
