STARNBERG, July 16, 2020 (Guest post)

The outbreak of coronavirus has had a serious impact on professional sport including tennis. Several of the major events in 2020 have either been cancelled or postponed and the Grand Slam tournaments have not been able to go ahead as planned.

However, as some parts of the world get to grips with the virus, professional sport has made a return. Soccer is a good example and competitions in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and the United States have started. With soccer returning in the USA, the United States Tennis Association strongly believe the US Open will be played this year.

The tournament is due to take place between the 31st of August and the 13th of September at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, New York City. A decision has already been made in terms of spectators and there will be no fans allowed inside the venue for the duration of the event.

Chris Widmaier, a U.S.T.A. spokesman said, “From the beginning, we’ve built this plan in a very collaborative manner,” adding that the U.S.T.A. had consulted regularly with medical and security experts. “We also recognize in order to move forward that we need government approval, approval from the state of New York and any other entity.”

While many people appear confident the US Open is going to take place this year, the are some who believe it is not going to happen. That includes the players and coaches, with three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka’s coach Dani Vallverdu casting his doubts over the event. Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou also remains pessimistic about the chances of the 2020 US Open being played in September.

Tennis fans in the United States who were looking forward to the US Open and placing a wager on the event will be hugely disappointed if it does not happen. However, with more websites offering online poker taking USA residents there has been no better time to enjoy a game of poker online. Many sports fans have started playing online poker for the first time during the suspension of professional sport across the world and have thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Returning to the possibility of playing the 2020 US Open, there is one other factor to consider and that is the French Open. This Grand Slam event was due to take place at the end of May and beginning of June but was postponed due to COVID-19. The date has since been changed and the 2020 French Open will now be played between the 27th of September and 11th of October.

That means players will have a short amount of time to recover from playing the US Open and to travel from New York to Paris to play the French Open. Players will also have to switch from playing on a hardcourt surface to playing on clay and that will be a tough task. In addition, one glance at the ATP Tour schedule shows there are other big clay court events taking place in Europe throughout August.

If the US Open is to go ahead as planned, players are going to have to make some interesting decisions.