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The U.S. Open tennis tournament is scheduled to get underway three weeks from Monday, on August 31st. The tournament has not been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but there will be no fans in attendance at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
While many countries have turned the corner in attempting to get past the novel coronavirus, the United States continues to deal with a host of issues. As such, we are seeing some notable tennis players drop out rather than travel to the United States during the pandemic.
The women’s side has been hit harder than the men’s side. As of August 9th, world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, No. 5 Elina Svitolina, and No. 7 Kiki Bertens have all withdrawn from the tournament. On the men’s side, world No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 40 Nick Kyrgios have both withdrawn.
There are three weeks left until the tournament gets underway, and we could see more players elect to stay home. As such, sportsbooks have been hesitant to post odds for the tournament. With three of the top ten women and the No. 2 man withdrawing, that would provide some cover for any other high profile tennis stars elect to pass on the Grand Slam tournament.
We’ll be tracking names as they come in. Below is a full list as of August 26th. Names with no source linked are from the US Open official release.
Men’s field
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) — The Guardian
Rafael Nadal (ESP) — Twitter
Kei Nishikori (JPN)
Alexei Popyrin (AUS)
Stan Wawrinka (SUI) — AFP News
Lu Yen-Hsun (TPE)
Women’s field
Bianca Andreescu (CAN)
Ashleigh Barty (AUS) — Australian Associated Press
Belinda Bencic (SUI)
Kiki Bertens (NED)
Fiona Ferro (FRA)
Simona Halep (ROU)
Polona Hercog (SLO)
Priscilla Hon (AUS)
Barbora Krejcikova (CZE)
Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
Ann Li (USA)
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT)
Andrea Petkovic (GER)
Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE)
Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP)
Elina Svitolina (UKR)
Wang Qiang (CHN) — Tennis World USA
Tamara Zidansek (SLO)