If all goes in line with plan, tennis ought to stir again to life in mid-August inside the groovy confines of an airport resort that appears just like the set of “Mad Males.”
The concept is to place the world’s prime gamers in a bubble—also called the TWA Resort at New York’s Kennedy Airport—that can function their base for 2 tournaments together with the U.S. Open. They’ll encounter no followers or media, and they’re going to exit the bubble solely as soon as they’re eradicated. Ought to they really feel adventurous, they’ll observe it by jetting off to Paris for the rescheduled French Open in late September.
It’s removed from what gamers are used to, however a biosecure resort and a reshuffled calendar are how the game hopes to rescue two Grand Slam tournaments within the weirdest tennis season in historical past. The unhealthy information for organizers is that they’ve solely fought half the battle.
They know that majors can solely be a hit if the highest gamers keep wholesome. And are prepared to journey. And are allowed into the nation. And play by the principles of the bubble. And hold testing destructive for the virus.
“There’s a leap of religion right here,” U.S. Open director Stacy Allaster mentioned.
Each sport within the technique of returning to motion faces some model of these points. However this isn’t German soccer or Nascar or the NBA. Many of the gamers aren’t already within the nation. They’re anticipated to flock to tournaments from dozens of locations which are all at completely different factors of their combat towards the pandemic. Roland Garros even plans to have followers there to look at them.
“When you begin having mass gatherings with folks coming in from all kinds of nations, it’s a recipe for it to kick off,” Andy Murray informed reporters final week.
The boys’s and ladies’s tennis excursions first shut down in mid-March, touching off a scramble to salvage essentially the most profitable occasions. The French Open gave up on its conventional spring slot and claimed two weeks within the fall, when it desires to play in entrance of followers. The U.S. Open, hoping that pandemic would ebb by late summer season, held its breath for its unique dates of Aug. 31 to Sept. 13. (And even then, organizers count on the event’s internet working earnings to fall by 80% this yr.)
However the Fed Cup and Davis Cup couldn’t discover a answer and this month bumped their finals into 2021. Solely Wimbledon, blessed with pandemic insurance, was in a position to calmly cancel altogether for the primary time since World Warfare II.
What stays is a warped schedule constructed on uneven containment of the virus that has left loads of the game’s greatest stars skittish about getting concerned. Rafael Nadal has mentioned he can be nervous about leaving his residence in Mallorca, Spain, with out a vaccine. And Roger Federer, already as a result of miss half the season after knee surgical procedure, scheduled a follow-up procedure that can prolong his profession and save him from any powerful choices about the place to play in 2020.
Most are adopting a wait-and-see method, weighing the lavish prize cash on provide in New York and Paris towards the dangers of worldwide journey—assuming no worldwide journey restrictions between the U.S. and Europe are thrown up over the summer season. They’re additionally painfully conscious that the virus is able to surging again. Florida, a favourite residence for prime execs on the boys’s and ladies’s circuits, is setting new data for an infection nearly day by day.
“As this complete state of affairs with the virus evolves right here in New York Metropolis, world wide, athletes will make that closing dedication two to a few weeks earlier than,” Allaster mentioned. “Possibly I’m just a little biased.”
A lot to organizers’ reduction, the U.S. Open has secured not less than one high-profile dedication from Serena Williams. She has promised to play and proceed her hunt for a 24th main title, again on the court docket the place she has already been a champion in three completely different a long time. However that’s the place the familiarity of the 2020 event will finish.
There can be no followers on web site, no media, and restricted participant entourages whereas the gamers take part within the Western & Southern Open and the U.S. Open back-to-back—it’s unlikely anybody can be allowed into the bubble midway via. Organizers will announce how lengthy gamers would must be on web site earlier than the tournaments begin as soon as they launch the small print of their well being protocol.
One side they’ve already set out is drastically lowering the variety of folks concerned with sending gamers into battle. Everybody within the singles draw can be allotted not more than two resort rooms contained in the bubble to deal with them and their total groups. Just a few gamers will take the choice to lease homes close by, however they too can be subjected to rigorous testing to re-enter what has been dubbed U.S. Open World.
Nonetheless, organizers know that their measures are solely as robust as their least cautious participant.
“In the event that they exit and…their habits is dangerous, they’re actually taking up a accountability of claiming ‘what I’m doing isn’t that essential to my fellow gamers,’” Dr. Brian Hainline, the U.S. Tennis Affiliation’s chief medical officer, mentioned earlier this month.
As if on cue, three-time U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic proved Hainline’s level throughout his exhibition event within the Balkans. Over the course of two weekends, Djokovic and different prime males on the professional circuit performed tennis in entrance of huge crowds, hugged one another on the internet, performed pickup basketball, and danced shirtless in a Belgrade nightclub. Djokovic, who had known as the U.S. Open’s guidelines “excessive,” noticed no use for any social distancing measures the place he was.
Then it turned actual to him: Djokovic tested positive for the coronavirus. Three different gamers who had been on the occasion examined optimistic for it, too. Although none appeared to undergo from extreme instances, the flare-up confirmed simply how simply the virus can carry a tennis event crashing down.
“It’s not shocking, actually, that the gamers and many individuals have examined optimistic if you see the scenes that have been happening there,” Murray mentioned. “Coronavirus doesn’t care who we’re or what we do and we have to respect the principles.”
