The chances of world No.2 Simona Halep playing at this year’s US Open are looking increasingly unlikely following fresh comments from her coach Darren Cahill.
The reigning Wimbledon champion is currently the only top 10 player on the WTA Tour who is yet to formally announce her plans for the Grand Slam, which will begin in only two weeks time. This year’s tournament is taking place behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic with players being kept inside a bubble. America has recorded more than 166,000 deaths related to the virus. Upon attending, those playing will have to sign a waiver saying that they will not sue if they contract the virus. Furthermore, players who opt to stay in private accommodation are expected to pay for 24-hour security.
Shedding some light on the situation, coach Darren Cahill told Nine’s World Wide of Sports that he is yet to be given a definite decision from Halep concerning the US Open but it is doubtful. The Romanian returned to action this week at the Prague Open where she has reached the final. It is her first professional tournament since February.
“I did ask her before Prague started and her gut feeling that she wasn’t going to play (the US Open) but she wanted to play this tournament,” Cahill said on Sunday.
“It was the first one coming back from COVID restrictions and she wanted to see how she felt. It’s a short flight from Romania to Prague, but there is a big difference flying to New York.”
Cahill, who took a break from working with Halep in 2019 to spend time with his family, points out that the cautious approach from the two-time Grand Slam winner is not unusual. Referring to her decision to withdraw from the 2016 Olympic Games due to the threat of the Zika Virus.
“She didn’t pick up a racket for maybe four to six weeks as soon as the COVID restrictions came in early March. She went home and stayed in her house,” he said.
“Remember also four years ago Simona missed the Olympics because she was worried about the Zika virus. She is very careful about this stuff.”
Thanks to the use of technology Cahill has still managed to keep updated with the progress of Halep during the pandemic. Even though he is currently across the Atlantic residing in America. A former top 30 player in singles, Cahill had also previously worked with the likes of Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi.
“We put a playsight camera in place so I could watch all of her practice sessions for the last two to three months,” he explained.
“I got a good feeling about how she is playing but you never know until she gets on the court. I’m doing a lot of coaching via video and telephone, but not much has changed.”
Should Halep withdraw from the US Open there will be more WTA top 10 players missing the event than those playing. On Saturday Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic became the fifth top 10 member to pull out after writing on Twitter “I have made the difficult decision to skip the US swing in New York and will return to the starting tour in Rome next month.” The announcement means that three out of the four 2019 US Open semi-finalists will not be playing with Serena Williams being the exception.
The US Open will start on August 31st.
List of official US Open withdrawals
1 Ash Barty AUS
5 Elina Svitolina UKR
6 Bianca Andreescu CAN
7 Kiki Bertens NED
8 Belinda Bencic SWI
29 Qiang Wang CHN
30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS
31 Barbora Strycova CZE
32 Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS
34 Saisai Zheng CHN
38 Julia Goerges GER
44 Fiona Ferro FRA
75 Lin Zhu CHN
85 Anastasia Potapova RUS
92 Ana Bogdan ROM
97 Sam Stosur AUS
103 Shuai Peng CHN
108 Xiyu Wang CHN
118 Barbora Krejcikova CZ
