US Open plan in works, including group flights, COVID tests

Charter flights to ferry U.S. Open tennis gamers and restricted entourages from Europe, South America and the Middle East to New York. Negative COVID-19 checks earlier than touring. Centralized housing. Daily temperature checks.

No spectators. Fewer on-court officers. No locker-room entry on observe days.

All are among the many eventualities being thought-about for the 2020 U.S. Open — whether it is held in any respect amid the coronavirus pandemic — and described to The Associated Press by a high-ranking official on the Grand Slam event.

“All of this is still fluid,” Stacey Allaster, the U.S. Tennis Association’s chief government for skilled tennis, stated in a phone interview Saturday. “We have made no decisions at all.” With that caveat, Allaster added that if the USTA board does resolve to go ahead with the Open, she expects it to be held at its standard web site and in its standard spot on the calendar. The important draw is scheduled to begin Aug. 31.

“We continue to be, I would say, 150% focused on staging a safe environment for conducting a U.S. Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on our dates. It’s all I wake up — our team wakes up — thinking about,” Allaster stated.

“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.” An announcement ought to come from “mid-June to end of June,” Allaster stated.

All sanctioned competitors has been suspended by the ATP, WTA and International Tennis Federation since March and is on maintain till late July.

The French Open was postponed from May to September; Wimbledon was canceled for the primary time since 1945.

There isn’t any established COVID-19 protocol for tennis, a worldwide sport with a number of governing our bodies.

“Everybody would agree to the fundamental principles, I’m sure: protecting the health of participants, following the local laws and minimizing the risk of the transmission of the virus,” stated Stuart Miller, who’s overseeing the ITF’s return-to-tennis coverage.

“But then you have to get down into the specific details.” One such element: The USTA desires so as to add locker rooms — together with at indoor courts that housed a whole bunch of momentary hospital beds on the peak of New York’s coronavirus outbreak — and enhance air filtration in present areas. Also being thought-about: no locker-room entry till simply earlier than a match.

So if anybody goes to Flushing Meadows simply to coach, Allaster stated, “You come, you practice, and return to the hotel.” The USTA offered its operational plan to a medical advisory group Friday; now that will likely be mentioned with metropolis, state and federal authorities officers.

“The fundamental goal here is to mitigate risk,” Allaster stated.

Governors across the nation, akin to New York’s Andrew Cuomo, who’re open to permitting skilled sports activities resume say that must be with out followers.

“We are spending a lot of time and energy on all the models, including no fans on site,” Allaster stated. “The government will help guide us.” In 2019, about 850,000 individuals attended the U.S. Open web site from the week earlier than the primary draw by way of the finals.

Lew Sherr, the USTA’s chief income officer, advised the AP it’s “less and less likely” spectators could be on the U.S. Open this yr.

That, Sherr stated, means “forgoing ticketing revenue, forgoing hospitality revenue, forgoing a portion of your sponsorship revenue.” But TV and digital rights charges, plus remaining sponsorship {dollars}, are “significant enough that it’s still worth it to go forward with a no-fans-on-site U.S. Open,” he stated.

Other areas Allaster addressed: SCORING Having best-of-three-set matches in males’s singles “has hardly been discussed,” she stated. “If the players came to us and said, ‘That is something we want to do,’ we would consider it. But we will not make a unilateral decision on that without player input.”

TESTING

Before touring to New York, gamers would want proof of a detrimental COVID-19 test. “Once they come into our, let’s say, ‘U.S. Open world,’” Allaster stated, “there will be a combination of daily health questionnaires, daily temperature checks and … some nasal or saliva or antibody testing.”

CHARTERS

Paris, Vienna, Frankfurt, Buenos Aires and Dubai are among the many cities the place gamers might catch a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport on an airline that may be a event accomplice. Afterward, gamers may be taken to the place they play subsequent; event websites in later September might embrace Paris, Madrid or Rome.

ENTOURAGES

“A player coming with an entourage of five, six, seven, eight is not something that’s in the plan,” Allater stated. One risk: Tournaments might present physiotherapists and masseuses so gamers don’t deliver their very own.

OFFICIATING

Matches might use fewer line judges than standard, with extra reliance on line-calling expertise. “It’s a hard one,” Allaster stated. “Obviously, we want to ensure that we have the highest level of integrity.”

BALL PERSONS

The present plan is to have them — solely adults, no children.