Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has never in her career skipped a Grand Slam, but the uncertain situation presented by the coronavirus pandemic made her decide not to travel to New York for the 2020 US Open which starts on August 31st.
The 2011 US Open quarterfinalist currently ranked 30th made the announcement on social media:
I’ve been thinking a lot and decided not to play the US Open this year. It wasn’t easy because I hadn’t missed any Grand Slam in my entire carrier. Tennis is almost everything for me.
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The main reason is insecurity, US Open doesn’t provide any guarantees. I don’t feel comfortable to travel to USA in such circumstances.
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Thanks WTA and USTA that give us a chance to play. From this moment, every player is on his own. My team and I have decided it would be for the best not to participate.
The former world No.13 Pavlyuchenkova recently played and went all the way to the title at the first-ever Women’s Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS), an exhibition competition created by Patrick Mouratoglou during the mid-season break.
Besides Pavlyuchenkova, the WTA Insider shared a list of other women’s tennis players that are also opting out of the US Open:
No.1 Barty
No.29 Q. Wang (CHN)
No.34 S. Zheng (CHN)
No.38 Goerges (GER)
No.74 L. Zhu (CHN)
No.78 Y. Wang (CHN)
No.84 Potapova (RUS)
No.92 Bogdan (ROU)
No.97 Stosur (AUS)
No.103 S.Peng (CHN)
On Tuesday, the USTA announced that 13 Grand Slam singles champions and nine of the Top 10 women in the world headline the initial women’s singles entry list at the US Open.
Likely that more will drop out before the date, depending on how things go in the US. if i was an athlete I would be very scared of getting corona as there are stories coming out now of people being affected for months and maybe longer even if they are technically clear of the virus. Could end up being largely an American tournament like the old days.
CLT, I’m sure more people will opt out. When it comes to getting corona, of course no one can guarantee players that they will not get it, but at the same time you can behave in such a way that you minimize the chances and I’m sure that the US Open will provide the best possible environment to prevent the spread of the virus. Every player will make the right decision for themselves, based on their own circumstances.