Patrick McEnroe, former doubles world number 3 and younger brother of eight-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe, fears that the US Open might be cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All ATP and WTA tournaments have been cancelled until 13 July and the Rogers Cup WTA Premier was called off last weekend.
The US Open starts on 31st August but the suspension might be extended. Many tennis fans fear that the entire season might be cancelled. New York has been one of the hardest hit cities in the world by Covid-19.
“I think that the US Open might be called off. I don’t have any inside information other than seeing what’s happening around the world and in New York. The hard thing about professional tennis is that it is such an international sport. For professional tennis to get back and running, essentially this has to be under control in the entire world and not just in the USA. At the moment, they are talking about Major League Baseball (MLB), which is not easy but it’s a little bit more possible to manage that because you are within one country. In tennis, you have players, media and fans coming from all over the world for these big tournaments, so unless all of that is under control, i twill be very hard to put the event on. They start ramping up preparations almost right when the French Open starts so there is a lot of work that needs to be done to get the facility up and ready for the qualifying and the main draw. You can’t just switch a button to get it ready because it takes months of preparation”, said Patrick McEnroe.
The French Tennis Federation moved the French Open to 20 September, one week after the end of the US Open.
“They realised in Paris that they had a lot of construction to get the stadium ready, so that had to stop because of their shutdown and I think they became aware pretty quickly, even if the virus and I think they became aware pretty quickly, even if this virus had passed, and for whatever reason they moved the tournament. This has unfortunately shown us one of the issues in professional tennis. There are so many different entities which are problematic, but I think they are feeling that they probably did that a little quicker than they probably should have. Wimbledon did all the right things in terms of communicating with the players, with the respective tours and the other majors and that’s the right thing to do. I don’t think switching surfaces is such a huge deal. I just hope that tennis is back”, said Patrick McEnroe.
Patrick McEnroe was tested positive for the coronavirus.
“The good news is that I feel fine. My symptoms have passed. I feel 100 percent”.
Patrick McEnroe won one singles tournament and 16 in doubles as a player. He succeeded his brother as Davis Cup captain and led the US team to the title in 2007. He work sas TV analyst.
