US Open will monitor players, entourages

Forty “social distance ambassadors” will monitor the U.S. Open grounds to make sure players and others are avoiding close contact and wearing face coverings — the U.S. Tennis Association bought 500,000 masks to distribute — as part of efforts to avoid a coronavirus outbreak during the fan-free Grand Slam tournament.

“We’re trying to leave nothing to chance,” Billie Jean King National Tennis Center chief operating officer Danny Zausner said in a telephone interview with The AP, “and make it as stress-free for the players as possible.”

The USTA announced Tuesday that one person, who isn’t a player, turned up positive for COVID-19 out of 1,400 tests administered in the controlled environment set up for the U.S. Open and another tennis tournament preceding it at the same site in New York.

The Western & Southern Open, moved this year from Cincinnati because of the pandemic, begins Saturday. The U.S. Open starts Aug. 31.

Two tests are taken 48 hours apart when a player or member of an entourage arrives at one of the two official hotels or one of the private homes the USTA made available for rent on Long Island. (Eight players chose the private housing option.)

Once the U.S. Open begins, a player testing positive would be kicked out of the tournament.

“This is all about mitigation of risk, lessening the exposure,” tournament director Stacey Allaster said.

She said about 350 players — roughly 90% of the field — already are in the “bubble.”