“The big issue truly wasnt a bubble strategy,” Ein said. “The huge problem is immigration, getting people back and forth in and out of America. We dont have clarity around that.”
The Citi Open cancellation, which comes in the week that the W.N.B.A. and Major League Baseball are planning to resume play, highlighted the unusual obstacles that professional tennis faces as an international sport that shifts venues and continents on a regular basis.
Because of the increase in coronavirus cases in the United States, the European Union is not allowing American tourists to get in. And though the United States is enabling foreign athletes to get in, there are lingering unpredictabilities about whether professional athletes would be needed to quarantine upon arrival. It also remains unclear whether European players would need to quarantine upon going back to Europe.
Ein said he believed the Citi Open cancellation may help to speed up the clarification procedure.
” I do believe the European occasions are certainly going to happen, and I think the U.S. Open has a really good opportunity to occur,” Ein stated. “I think our cancellation could speed up the resolution of those immigration concerns.
Ein, a business owner who was as soon as a ball boy at the Washington event, said he and his group were “heartbroken” to call off the competition. When it became clear that viewers would not be permitted on site, he added that the possibility of holding it this year became less appealing.
Exhibits are being staged frequently on a local basis and though World TeamTennis is being played at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., the routine maless and womens trips have been shut down because March.
The WTA Tour prepares to be the very first to resume with a clay-court occasion in Palermo, Italy, from Aug. 3 to 9. That will be followed by a clay-court occasion in Prague and a brand-new hardcourt occasion, the Top Seed Open, in Lexington, Ky., from Aug. 10 to 16, which has commitments from Serena and Venus Williams.
“The huge issue really wasnt a bubble strategy,” Ein stated. “The huge concern is immigration, getting people back and forth in and out of America.” I do think the European occasions are definitely going to occur, and I believe the U.S. Open has a truly excellent opportunity to take place,” Ein said.
