According to Marca, the US Open 2020 tennis tournament will most likely be relocated from New York to Indian Wells, California, as the Covid-19 pandemic is devastating Manhattan and surrounding areas.
In the latest online meeting, the new executive director of the US Tennis Association (USTA) Michael Dowse said the organization will make an official decision about the US Open in June. Mr. Dowse also said that the ability to play on the field without the audience is not high.
Currently, the national tennis center Billie Jean King is being used as a field hospital to serve against Covid-19, amid a spike in the number of patients. It is also a dining hall for patients, health workers, and children. It is not clear what the situation will be like until the end of August.
In a World Tennis Magaazine article, former USTA official Randy Walker proposed a backup plan for the US Open, including moving the tournament from New York to Indian Wells, or possibly Los Angeles.
The BNP Paribas Open, the tournament that takes place at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in March every year, is the first tennis event this year to be canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This sports complex has two large tennis courts with a capacity of 16,102 seats (yard 1) and 8,000 seats (yard 2), along with nearly 20 other small courts on an area of 20 hectares, with facilities. enough to hold the Grand Slam. In particular, more than 10 courses in this complex have installed Hawk-eye systems, while Grand Slam tournaments only have a few main courts.
Moreover, the situation in California is not as complicated as New York, the US outbreak with a quarter of the cases is here. Players, referees, staff, fans will not have the same traffic problems as in New York, if the tournament takes place here. The only problem is that the temperatures here in late August and early September are quite sultry.
