Because of the coronavirus, there will be no fans in the stands and several top players just won’t be coming.
Kristie Ahn tried to block out the din. It was Saturday afternoon of Labor Day weekend last year, and Ahn, a 27-year-old Stanford graduate from New Jersey, was on the United States Open’s Grandstand court upsetting the former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko to reach the round of 16 at a major for the first time. After she served an ace to close out the 6-3,7-5 win, Ahn burst into tears and finally allowed herself time to soak in the adoration that comes with being a local hero at the U. S. Open. “The crowd was crazy,” said Ahn as she prepared to return to the U. S. T. A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for this year’s vastly altered Open. “Sad that it won’t be the same, but I’ll always have that awesome memory.” The 2020 Open, starting on Monday, is proceeding on time this year, though with drastic alterations because of the pandemic. With no spectators, far fewer players competing, smaller support staffs and no smell of hamburgers and waffle fries coming from the food court, the tournament may seem more closed than open. “One of my favorite things to do was to stand by the East Gate at 9:30 in the morning on Opening Day and watch tens of thousands of people stream in,” said Danny Zausner, chief operating officer of the National Tennis Center, which was turned into a field hospital in the spring for coronavirus patients. “There’s a vast difference in hearing sirens and seeing ambulances to watching fans excited about tennis.” Since its inception in 1881, the United States Nationals, now the U. S. Open, unlike the other three majors, has never been canceled. Wimbledon, the oldest of the Grand Slam tournaments, as well as what are now known as the French and Australian Opens, were all halted during both world wars. But after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decreed that organized sports like baseball, tennis and college football games would serve as morale boosters for Americans. So, the U. S. Nationals played on. Even when the coronavirus roared through New York City, and especially Queens, in March, United States Tennis Association officials were optimistic about hosting this year’s Open. “I never lost faith that we would have the Open,” said Zausner, although he admitted that the changes had left him uneasy, including allowing only adults to serve as ball persons. “I can’t help thinking about the 14-year-old kid who last year just missed out on making the cut but grew a couple of inches over the winter and couldn’t wait to try out again,” he said.
