US Open could allow front line workers to attend the tournament

Tennis - The US Open could invite some front line workers to attend the tournament if the situation in New York continues to improve, according to a report by ESPN

US Open could allow front line workers for the event

Lew Sherr, chief revenue officer of the USTA, told ESPN, "If New York is still looking great in a month and a half, we may act opportunistically. You might see us invite some number of frontal-line workers, health care workers and their families. It's a possibility that we've talked about, but nobody has put pencil to paper on it. We've looked at those other events, as well as golf and NASCAR and everything else. It's different if you're on one court in West Virginia [WTT] or Atlanta with a limited player field. They can let a few hundred people in as general admission, but for us, that model just doesn't work."

Sherr says the tournament has no plans to allow fans as it would impact the ability of the event to ensure adequate social distancing to make the tournament safe for the players and others involved. "Once we start to let any number of fans in, say, 10% capacity, it impacts our ability to leverage the grounds and ensure adequate social distancing. Perhaps most important, there would be no way to keep fans and players separate on an open campus. The USTA wants almost all of the National Tennis Center site to be open to players so they don't have to be sequestered in nearby hotels on free days or before and after they play."

The 2020 US Open will be the 140th edition of tennis' US Open and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It will be held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City. This will be the first major tennis event since the start of the worldwide global pandemic began in March. Rafael Nadal and Bianca Andreescu are the men's and women's singles defending champions. The professional men's and women's tennis tour is set to resume in early August. So far, several top players have expressed their concerns about travelling to the United States to play the event.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2AnHgGS