USTA Press Release, July 14, 2020
Due to the situation surrounding COVID-19, the USTA has canceled a number of National level events scheduled to be held in August. The decision to cancel was made with guidance from the USTA Medical Advisory Group, to ensure the health and safety of all those involved with these tournaments. As these events were larger in scale and size, there was an inherent risk associated with hosting large numbers of individuals at one site, at one time, and would make risk mitigation difficult.
Without a controlled environment that includes a comprehensive and contained lodging, transportation, food and beverage, and medical testing program in place, proper risk mitigation would not be possible – and in the case of these events, this type of environment would logistically and financially be incredibly difficult to create. In addition, as these are National level events, many of those competing would have to travel interstate, bringing into play different regulations, restrictions and quarantine periods, dependent upon the localities involved, both at the site of the event and in the participants’ home states. The uncertainty surrounding the number of COVID-19 cases in the states of the host sites was also considered.
The safety of the actual tennis being played was not a concern of the USTA Medical Advisory Group, and did not factor into the decision to cancel the events. The USTA has previously issued a set of recommendations as to how tennis can be played in a safe manner, which can be found HERE for players and HERE for facilities.
The following events have been canceled:
Juniors
- USTA National Championships
- Boys’ 18s
- August 7-15 – USTA National Campus (Orlando, Fla.)
- Girls’ 18s
- August 7-15 – George Barnes Family Tennis Center (San Diego)
- Boys’ 16s
- August 7-15 – Rome Tennis Center at Berry College (Rome, Ga.)
- Girls’ 16s
- August 7-15 – Mobile Tennis Center (Mobile, Ala.)
- Boys’ 18s
- USTA National Doubles Championships
- Boys’ and Girls’ 18s – 12s
- August 28-30 – USTA National Campus (Orlando, Fla.)
- Boys’ and Girls’ 18s – 12s
Adults
- Men’s 65 USTA National Indoor Championships
- August 10-15 – LifeTime Eden Prairie Athletic (Eden Prairie, Minn.)
- Men’s and Women’s Open USTA National Grass Court Championships
- August 10-16 – International Tennis Hall of Fame (Newport, R.I.)
- Men’s 75 & 80 and Mother/Son USTA National Grass Court Championships
- August 13-16 – Agawam Hunt Country Club (Rumford, R.I.)