First player tested positive for Covid-19 during US Open 2020
France’s Benoit Paire will not be taking part in the US Open 2020 after being tested positive for the coronavirus.
It was earlier announced that an unidentified player had been withdrawn for the Grand Slam after testing positive for disease.
Paire’s name was removed from the US Open website’s official draw and replaced with that of 149th-ranked Spaniard Marcel Granollers, who is set to face Poland’s 108th-ranked Kamil Majchrzak in a first-round match next week.
French sports daily L’Equipe had earlier reported that world number 22 Paire had tested positive for coronavirus in New York.
The US Tennis Association said the asymptomatic player has been advised to follow state and tournament health and safety protocols requiring isolation for at least 10 days.
Contact tracing has been initiated to determine if anyone else must quarantine for 14 days as a result of being around the player involved.
L’Equipe said fellow French players Richard Gasquet, Gregoire Barrere, Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Adrian Mannarino have been confined to their hotel rooms at the tournament until further notice.
News of the positive test comes after players have been practicing and playing a tuneup event, the ATP and WTA Western and Southern Open, usually staged in Cincinnati, in the same quarantine bubble where the US Open begins Monday without spectators.
Paire, 31, was seeded 17th. He made his first Grand Slam fourth round in 2015 at the US Open and that remains level for his deepest Slam run.
USTA officials aren’t expected to confirm any individual player’s test results under US medical privacy laws.
Paire had arrived in the US on August 18 and numerous coronavirus tests had returned negative results.
However, he was forced to retire from his first-round match in the Western and Southern Open against Borna Coric after complaining of feeling unwell.
Intense cleaning and safety protocols were put in place before the US Open allowed players into the bubble.
The number of support personnel for each players was limited to keep the number of people inside the bubble to a minimum.
Readmore