Gov. Cuomo Says U.S. Open Will Start in August — Without Fans

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the U.S. Open will be held — without fans — from August 31 to September 13 during his daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday.

“We’re ready to move forward,” U.S. Tennis Association spokesperson Chris Widmaier said in a telephone interview with ESPN Monday. “As long as we get all the approvals we need.”

The association has officially received approval from Cuomo, who confirmed the tournament would be held as scheduled without fans.

“We’ve reviewed the Capital Region data and we’re going to go to Phase Three tomorrow in the Capital Region, so we’re excited about that,” Cuomo said.

“We’re excited about the U.S. Open it’s going to be held in Queens, August 31st to September 13th. It will be held without fans, but we can watch it on TV and I’ll take that. The tennis authorities are going to be taking extraordinary precautions, but that’s going to occur in Queens. Again, it will be televised but no fans there.”

No other tennis tournaments have been held since March due to the coronavirus outbreak, including Wimbledon, which was canceled for the first time since World War II.

But not everyone is pleased by the news, Australian player Nick Kyrgios called the USTA “selfish” for their plans to go ahead with the tournament amid the pandemic and joked that he would get his “hazmat suit ready.”

Smh – people that live in the US of course are pushing the Open to go ahead ??‍♂️ ‘Selfish’ I’ll get my hazmat suit ready for when I travel from Australia and then have to quarantine for 2 weeks on my return.

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 16, 2020

Watch above, via Spectrum News.