Marion Bartoli and Noah Rubin: US Open win not the same after many withdrawals

Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli and American tennis player Noah Rubin have said that winning the US Open title in New York later this month may not mean as much as winning the US Open in any other year due to the many players deciding not to compete in the event in the midst of the global pandemic.

Marion Bartoli and Noah Rubin on the upcoming US Open

Bartoli and Rubin were speaking on the Match Points show (part of the Tennis majors website) along with American journalist Ben Rothenberg and Josh Cohen. 

Bartoli says that the winning the US Open in New York without many players in the draw may make the win less worthy as compared to any other year.  “I think the player himself or herself who will win the US Open under these circumstances will know that they didn’t really win the US Open. You can’t really say that you won a Grand Slam when you have 20 out of the top 32 players not coming, for example, if that is happening. You know it is just a regular tournament that you won, and you are happy that you won and you are happy that you have been able to get through all the difficulties and you navigated through all of this, but you can’t really call it a Grand Slam when there is that many people not showing up at all.” 

Rubin, who is in the United States, also echoed similar views on the show, saying that there could be an asterisk for whoever wins the tournament this year. “It’s tough, this is going to be one of those times where there could be an asterisk right next to the name, because without the top guys playing, maybe we lose 20 or 25 of the top 50 guys, it’s going to be tough to argue, will this be the same level of a Grand Slam?" 

The US Open is the first Grand Slam event scheduled to be held after the tennis shutdown in March. Some top players have already confirmed their withdrawal from the event, including defending men's champion Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios. On the women's side, world No. 1 Ash Barty, Top 10 players Elina Svitolina and Kiki Bertens, former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and Julia Gorges have also withdrawn.

Photo from Marion Bartoli Twitter Account

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