Assessing the future of the 2020 US Open amidst Citi Open cancellation
The US Open is now in major jeopardy after reports have surfaced regarding the Citi Open’s cancellation. Here is an assessment of the questionable hardcourt swing.
It was all too good to be true. Tennis looked set to begin a relatively smooth process in the transition back to normal play next month. The schedule was set, regardless of the fact that it was nearly impossible for players to compete in both major events in one month unless they skipped tuneups. Players were beginning to confirm their participation in events and it looked as if tennis would succeed nicely amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first signs of the thin ice that the sport was on started to crack yesterday. Reports started to come out that the ATP’s first event back, the Citi Open in Washington DC, was set to be canceled due to the European travel restrictions for citizens traveling to the United States and back.
"“Several concordant sources informed us that the Washington tournament was going to be canceled very soon. The decision of the EU two days ago to keep the borders closed with the USA is perhaps not insignificant in this cancellation…” (via Tennis Break News and translated by EssentiallySports)"
In short, Europe requires every person that returns from the United States to quarantine for at least 14 days. In the case of tennis, if players want to play the US Open, they’ll be required to miss Roland Garros due to their time in quarantine.
Because the US Open ends September 13th and most players will likely be returning to Europe around that date, the end of their 2-week quarantine will coincide with the first day of Roland Garros, meaning they will likely skip the event due to them missing Rome and Madrid as valuable tuneups to the Parisian major event.
Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev were the Citi Open headliners this year and were both set to travel to the US to compete in the hardcourt swing but without any guarantee that the tournaments will take place, they (as well as many others) will likely stay in Europe and compete in the September clay swing.
The biggest problem with the likely cancellation of the Citi Open is how it will affect the succeeding tournament: the US Open.
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In order to maintain player safety, the ATP and USTA announced that the Washington DC event would be moved to Flushing Meadows, the site of the New York Grand Slam. During the preparation stages, this seemed like the perfect idea. Keeping players in one site decreased the likelihood that they would contract COVID-19.
This certainly changes the dynamic of how the season return will play out. It’s been certain that Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic would likely skip the US tournaments to focus their attention in Europe, especially given the fact that they’ve already locked themselves into the tuneup clay tournaments.
The kicker here is that many of the younger European players, like Tsitsipas and Medvedev (among many others) will now look to follow suit and play in Europe for their guarantee that they’ll be playing. It hurts their chances at winning in comparison to the US Open’s projected bracket void of a few of the ATP’s players but it would end up being worth it for them.
The European swing has three major events set to take place in September: Two Masters 1000s in Madrid and Rome, as well as Roland Garros. In the US, however, there’s only one Masters 1000 event set to be played (Western & Southern Open) alongside the US Open. This makes the clay swing not only easier to play, but also more valuable in terms of ranking points.
With Federer out until 2021, every player in the top seven ranked below 4th all have varying amounts of a shot to take the Swiss’ spot at #4 in the World if they put together a solid showing.
4. Roger Federer (6630 points)
5. Daniil Medvedev (5890)
6. Stefanos Tsitsipas (4745)
7. Alexander Zverev (3630)
Both Medvedev and Tsitsipas have a good shot at taking Federer’s spot by the end of the year, or at the very least move up a spot each. Zverev will have to have four weeks of flawless tennis if he wants to get up to 4th.
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Regardless of this, it’s still on the table for the US Open to be played. While nothing has been canceled yet, the cancellation of the Citi Open will have a huge effect on where the top players will decide to play. A season without the New York Grand Slam is possibly upon us.