US Open promises consultation over changes

US OPEN organisers have responded to the shock decision by their counterparts at the French Open to move the tennis tournament to September with a statement obliquely criticising unilateral changes to the Grand Slam calendar.

The switch has placed the tournament a week after the final of the US Open and results in clashes with ATP tournaments in Metz, St. Petersburg, Chengdu, Sofia and Zhuhai as well as WTA events in Guangzhou, Seoul, Tokyo and Wuhan.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) said currently there were no plans to alter the US Open schedule and stressed any potential changes would be made only after consultation with other stakeholders.

“At a time when the world is coming together, we recognise that such a decision should not be made unilaterally,” the statement read.

“Therefore the USTA would only do so in full consultation with the other Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA and ATP, the ITF and our partners, including the Laver Cup.”

The Laver Cup exhibition team competition, heavily promoted by Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, was supposed to take place from Sept 25-27 in Boston but will now clash with the rescheduled French Open.

The organisers of the Korea Open said they had yet to hear from the WTA about the implications of the French Open move on their tournament, which was scheduled to take place in Seoul from Sept 21-27.

“We are still in talks of adjusting the Korea Open tour schedule, but nothing has been decided yet,” an official told Reuters.

“The schedule would probably change according to amendments in WTA calendar.”

Sport has been shut down over large parts of the world with the ATP tour announcing a six-week suspension and the WTA tour cancelling events until May 2.

The ITF has also suspended all its events, including next month’s new-look Fed Cup finals in Budapest. – Reuters