Coronavirus pandemic

U.S. Open hopeful fans can attend

Organisers have strict health, travel plans and will make decision on Slam by end-June

NEW YORK • The future of the US Open remains up in the air owing to the coronavirus pandemic, but that will not stop the tournament organisers from planning to put on a show at Flushing Meadows.

Stacey Allaster, the US Tennis Association's (USTA) chief for professional tennis, told the Associated Press on Saturday night a decision on whether the hard-court Grand Slam, which is scheduled for Aug 31 to Sept 13, can proceed will be made in "mid-June to end of June".

In the meantime, they are covering every possible safety angle to ensure the health of those involved remains the utmost priority.

Allaster floated several proposals, including having additional locker rooms and improved air filtration in existing spaces; using Emirates, which is a tournament partner, to fly players to New York via chartered flights; and regular Covid-19 testing and temperature checks.

Other plans could require players to follow a strict regimen of only coming to court for matches and practice and staying at a designated hotel in between, and no locker room access until before a match.

The number of line judges required could also be cut in favour of replay technology, on top of having adults and not kids as ball persons and employing in-house masseuses and physiotherapists.

On the protocols, Allaster said: "All of this is still fluid. We have made no decisions at all. We continue to be, I would say, 150 per cent focused on staging a safe environment for conducting a US Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in New York on our dates.

"It's all I wake up - our team wakes up - thinking about. The idea of an alternative venue, an alternative date... we've got a responsibility to explore it, but it doesn't have a lot of momentum."

The USTA is remaining hopeful US Open fans, among the most vociferous around, can partake in the Major, even if safe distancing measures have to be respected.

Last week, the French Open organisers said they were aiming to have a limited number of fans, if possible, at Roland Garros in September and so does the US Open.

Said Chris Widmaier, the USTA's head of communications: "Our top goal is to conduct the US Open in New York on our scheduled dates.

"To that end, we are modelling many potential scenarios which include both limited fans and potentially, no fans on site for the event."

The USTA handed over its plans to a medical advisory group last Friday, with city, state and federal government officials to rule over them.

Professional tennis has been on hold since March, and the ATP and WTA Tours are not set to resume until August at the earliest.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 01, 2020, with the headline U.S. Open hopeful fans can attend. Subscribe