Paris (AFP)
Unlike Rafael Nadal, defending champion, world No.1 Novak Djokovic has decided to play the US Open, the second Grand Slam tournament of a tennis season completely upset by the Covid-19 pandemic, and which must restart in ten days.
It is in a statement of a few paragraphs, published Thursday at midday on social networks, that Novak Djokovic confirmed his presence in New York from Saturday: first for the Masters 1000 of Cincinnati, relocated in the New York bubble (August 22-28), then for the US Open (August 31-September 13).
An announcement that comes to put a little balm in the heart of the organizers, who will be deprived, for the first time since 1999, of Roger Federer, injured and who has already put an end to his season, and of Nadal.
Because ten days apart, the Serbian with 17 Grand Slam titles, including three on the courts of Flushing Meadows (2011, 2015, 2018), took the opposite view of the Spaniard on Thursday.
Nadal had announced to give up the US Open, because of the health situation and the "madness" of the calendar, which foresees a sequence of two Grand Slams (US Open and Roland-Garros) preceded by two Masters 1000 (Cincinnati and Rome ), within seven weeks. All after more than four months without playing.
If "Nole" recognizes "obstacles" and "challenges" facing the health situation linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, and his decision was not easy to take, he nevertheless claims to be "enthusiastic" about the prospect of returning to competition.
- Circuit stopped since March -
"I have trained hard with my team and I am in good shape. So I am ready to adapt to the new conditions," "Djoko" said in his statement.
The US Open will be played behind closed doors, with a strict health protocol, which notably provides for tests for Covid-19 for participants, before their departure for New York, upon their arrival and throughout their stay, for good reason. once or twice a week.
The 33-year-old Serbian had contracted the Covid-19 at the end of June on the sidelines of the Adria Tour, a charity tournament in the Balkans that he had organized and which had created controversy, with a total absence of barrier gestures: full stadium, almost no protective mask, braces between players, nightclub party topless, ...
Many participants, like Djokovic, had tested positive for the new coronavirus, including Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, Croatian Borna Coric and Serbian Victor Troicki.
"I have done all the checks to make sure that I have fully recovered and I am ready to get back on the court to play my best tennis there," Djokovic assured.
For her part, the young Canadian of 20 years Bianca Andreescu, winner last year, gave up defending her title at the US Open, believing that the context of the Covid-19 pandemic did not allow her to sufficiently prepare .
"After talking to my loved ones, I made the difficult decision not to return to New York this year, in order to focus on my fitness and make sure I was ready to play at my best level again," explained Thursday the current 6th world Thursday.
Another defection in the women's table of the US Open: the French Fiona Ferro, 44th in the world, who has just won the Palermo tournament, the first event of the WTA circuit after a five-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Among men, the latest ATP tournaments date back to February 29 in Dubai - won by Djokovic- and Acapulco, won by Nadal, and March 1 in Santiago (Chile).
From cancellations (the most emblematic, that of Wimbledon) to postponements (especially Roland-Garros from the end of May to the end of September), the circuit has been at a standstill for more than six months, if we put aside the few exhibitions organized here and there.
He is due to resume in New York in just over a week with the Cincinnati Masters 1000, after the Washington tournament was canceled.
The male and female tables of the US Open have experienced a massacre in recent days in the face of the health risk: Stan Wawrinka, Nick Kyrgios, Ashleigh Barty (World No. 1), Elina Svitolina (No. 5), Kiki Bertens (No. 7) have also given up.
© 2020 AFP