Skepticism for the US Open
From Belgrade, where they joined the Serb, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov also shared their fears about a possible visit to Flushing Meadows.
From left to right, Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov and Dominic Thiem before the press conference on Friday.
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Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov have, like Novak Djokovic, shown reluctance to participate in the US Open under current conditions, while the coronavirus epidemic is still active.
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“Everyone wants to play if possible, but with the conditions that are currently in force it will be very difficult,” Alexander Zverev noted at a press conference in Belgrade on Friday.
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Like Djokovic recently, the German spoke of the compulsory passage through a quarantine of 14 days after landing on American soil as well as the impossibility of taking more than one member of his team there and staying in hotels at the airport. “Under these conditions I don’t think that many players will be comfortable playing,” he added.
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“Certain conditions will have to change for it to make sense,” said Dominic Thiem.
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However, the Austrian star and the number one Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov nuanced by recommending to wait until a decision on the US Open is taken, which should intervene by the end of the month, before adopting a final position .
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“Extreme” conditions
Thiem, Zverev and Dimitrov are staying in Belgrade where they will participate with the world number one Saturday and Sunday in the first meeting of a series of charity meetings which will take place in the Balkans from June 13 to July 5.
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Novak Djokovic, who is also chairman of the ATP Players’ Council, said on Wednesday that the season, interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic, would resume in early September in Europe rather than in the United States in August, qualifying as “Extreme” the sanitary conditions planned for the US Open.
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While the ATP and WTA seasons have still not resumed since their break in mid-March, the Masters 1000 of Cincinnati (Ohio), won last year by Daniil Medvedev, is to take place from August 16 to 23 and the US Open from August 24 to September 13.
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Wimbledon was canceled due to the pandemic and Roland-Garros postponed until the end of September.
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The world No 2 Rafael Nadal for his part expressed in early June reservations about the resumption of the season “as long as the situation is not entirely safe and just”.
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((AFP)
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