SI Insider: Updates on Tennis' U.S. Open
The U.S. Open is still on the schedule for the end of August, but it will look drastically different than it has in previous years. SI's Jon Wertheim shares a few of the ways the 2020 U.S. Open will be unique.
Video Transcript:
Robin Lundberg: As sports begin to return and the country begins to open, what about the U.S. Open? For more, I'm joined by our senior writer, Jon Wertheim. Jon, what's the latest on the big tennis event?
Jon Wertheim: You know, this has become the sport's great parlor game without actual matches: will there be a 2020 U.S. Open? If so, what will it look like? Here's the latest I have. Which is, it's still on as we speak. There will not be fans. There will not be juniors. There will not be qualifying. There will be very limited doubles. There will be 128 players in both men's and women's. So 256 players, they will all perhaps be staying in the same hotel.
They will be on the equivalent of lockdown. There will be COVID tests left and right and daily. Each player, and this is really significant, will only be able to have, basically, a team of one other person. So if you're Roger Federer, you've only got one guest to bring with you. That is a very scaled down operation from what players are used to. I think this is going to really be a challenge to the top players who are going to wonder if this is worth it, frankly.
I think the run-of-the-mill players will be very, very happy. I hear prize money is going to be at ninety-five percent the level that it was last year. Which is significant because the revenues are going to be down more than half. I mean, there won't be a single ticket sold. The sponsorships are going way down. The suites that used to be used by corporations are now going to be private locker rooms for the seeded players. So the tournament isn't gonna make nearly as much money as it did last year. But they are going to pay ninety five percent of the prize money. Again, this all is pending government approval. If local or state government says we're not comfortable with this, we probably won't have the event. But right now, it's going to look very different from 2019. But it is on.
