All sanctioned competition has been suspended by the ATP, WTA and International Tennis Federation since March and is on hold until late July.
The French Open was postponed from May to September; Wimbledon was canceled for the first time since 1945.
There is no established COVID-19 protocol for tennis, a global sport with several governing 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,” said Stuart Miller, who is overseeing the ITF’s return-to-tennis policy. “But then you have to get down into the specific details.”
One such detail: The USTA wants to add locker rooms — including at indoor courts that housed hundreds of temporary hospital beds at the height of New York’s coronavirus outbreak — and improve air filtration in existing spaces. Also being considered: no locker-room access until just before a match. So if anyone goes to Flushing Meadows just to train, Allaster said, “You come, you practice, and return to the hotel.”
The USTA presented its operational plan to a medical advisory group Friday; now that will be discussed with city, state and federal government officials.
“The fundamental goal here is to mitigate risk,” Allaster said.
Governors around the country, such as New York’s Andrew Cuomo, who are open to allowing professional sports resume say that should be without fans.
“We are spending a lot of time and energy on all the models, including no fans on site,” Allaster said. “The government will help guide us.”
In 2019, about 850,000 people attended the U.S. Open site from the week before the main draw through the finals.
Lew Sherr, the USTA’s chief revenue officer, told the AP it is “less and less likely” spectators would be at the U.S. Open this year.
That, Sherr said, means “forgoing ticketing revenue, forgoing hospitality revenue, forgoing a portion of your sponsorship revenue.” But TV and digital rights fees, 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 said.
Other areas Allaster addressed:
SCORING
Having best-of-three-set matches in men’s singles “has hardly been discussed,” she said. “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 traveling to New York, players would need proof of a negative COVID-19 test. “Once they come into our, let’s say, ‘U.S. Open world,’” Allaster said, “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 cities where players could catch a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport on an airline that is a tournament partner. Afterward, players might be taken to where they play next; tournament sites in later September could include 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 said. One possibility: Tournaments could provide physiotherapists and masseuses so players don’t bring their own.
OFFICIATING
Matches could use fewer line judges than usual, with more reliance on line-calling technology. “It’s a hard one,” Allaster said. “Obviously, we want to ensure that we have the highest level of integrity.”
BALL PERSONS
The current plan is to have them -- only adults, no kids.
