Former champion Kuznetsova latest to withdraw from U.S. Open
(Reuters) - Former U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has joined a growing list of players who have decided not to play in this year’s tournament due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Russian world number 32 on Monday announced her decision on Instagram where she also said she would skip the Western & Southern Open which is being held in New York this year instead of Cincinnati as a lead-up to the Aug. 31Sept. 13 U.S. Open.
“Due to an unfavourable situation caused by coronavirus, and therefore the inability get together all my team, I made a difficult decision to refuse to participate in Cincinnati and the U.S. Open,” said Kuznetsova.
“I feel very sad, because I have been waiting for these tournaments so much, but the pandemic changes all plans. I hope the situation will be more positive by the next tournaments.”
The 35-year-old Kuznetsova beat compatriot Elena Dementieva in the 2004 U.S. Open final to win the first of her two career Grand Slam titles.
In her most recent New York appearance, Kuznetsova suffered a shock first-round defeat to teenage qualifier Kristie Ahn in 2019 after having struggled for much of the last year with a wrist injury.
World number one Ash Barty, Elina Svitolina and Kiki Bertens are among the other leading players who have also decided to skip this year’s U.S. Open because of the virus.
“We are extremely pleased with how the 31st Palermo Ladies Open was conducted and received this past week,” the WTA told Reuters yesterday.
“Our season’s resumption has required intricate and comprehensive planning and it speaks volumes to the level of professionalism and dedication we have in the tennis community, including a committed tournament team in Palermo, our players and the WTA staff.”
The WTA International level tournament would usually attract only a modest field but the initial entry list boasted a host of players in the top 20, including twice Grand Slam champion Simona Halep of Romania.
As organisers continued the preparations in their bid to prove to the world that the professional Tours can still run this year amid strict COVID-19 protocols, the first signs of trouble emerged.
With a week to go before the start of the main draw on Aug. 3, world number two Halep pulled out citing anxieties over travelling to the Sicilian capital amid the pandemic.
Leading British player Johanna Konta also withdrew, robbing the event of two of its top draws.
On the eve of the qualifiers, the organisers found that two players had tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies. However, both returned negative results when they had a Polymerase Chain Reaction to detect the virus.
There was no such luck the next day as one player returned a positive result for COVID-19 and withdrew from the event.
There were calls to cancel the tournament but the organisers and WTA decided to continue as planned.
“As this is a new environment for all of us, we continue to learn every day how to operate in this new normal,” the WTA added.
“We are excited to be back on the court showcasing the best in women’s professional tennis and will continue to move forward with an abundance of caution.”
Top seed and world number 14 Petra Martic agreed and her words resonated among her colleagues during the week.
“Personally, I’m just happy to be here. I’m happy to see that it’s possible to actually start again because still a week or two ago I didn’t believe it, to be honest,” Martic said before starting her campaign.
“So this really gives me hope and I hope that things are going to go in the right direction and we’re going to have quite a few tournaments still this year.”