Argentinian Guido Pella, excluded from the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati for having closely tested positive for Covid-19, accused the organizers of the US Open on Tuesday of having “changed the rules“, after the positive test of Benoît Paire.
“I’m mad at them“, the American Federation which organized in the wake of the Cincinnati tournament and the US Open in a health bubble in Flushing Meadows, he said at a press conference after his loss in the first round against JJ Wolf.
“They changed the rules after Benoît tested positive and I want to know whyPella demanded.
“I do not know if they have received a phone call from France or if they have close relations with the French Federation.“, he added.
In any case, “I am sad because I have experienced one of the worst injustices that a sportsman can experience“, he noted, not excluding legal action.
In the case of Paire, who tested positive just before the start of the US Open, several players who knew him were placed under increased surveillance, but were allowed to participate in the tournament as long as they were negative.
A few days earlier, Pella and Bolivian player Hugo Dellien had been excluded without discussion from the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati because, although both negative, their physical trainer had tested positive.
“I am happy for them (the French players) that they were able to participate in the US Open (…) I know for sure that Paire passed a second test immediately after the first came back positive. While my trainer had to wait 4 or 5 days because, they told me, the New York Department of Health does not retest if you are positive“, he said.
He claimed that the USTA had even refused that they have this second test done themselves and at their own expense, arguing that it “there was almost no chance that it was a false positive“.
“But we did two or three tests and it was negative every time“said Pella.
“So I want to know why they did this to us and not to the French“, he hammered.
Although tested negative multiple times thereafter, Pella and Dellien were refused for several days “a short to train or a bike to keep busy“.
–
