After a nearly three-hour delay to start the match, fifth-seeded Alexander Zverev came back from an early deficit to beat Adrian Mannarino, 6-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, in the third round at the US Open on Friday.
The United States Tennis Association cited a conversation with health officials as the reason for the late start.
“The match was delayed while a collaborative dialogue with health officials was conducted today,” the organization said in a statement. “Communication with the players was ongoing during the afternoon to keep them updated at all times. Given the sensitivity of the medical issues involved, the USTA is not able to provide further details.”
Originally slated to begin around 2:30 p.m. ET, following the conclusion of the Angelique Kerber–Ann Li match, the court on Louis Armstrong Stadium sat empty for hours, with no formal announcement from the tournament about the status of the match. The officials and ball kids left the court about 30 minutes after it was expected to start.
During the delay, Zverev was seen lying in a chair on the balcony of his suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium, looking at his phone. In an on-court postmatch interview with ESPN, Zverev said he didn’t think Mannarino was going to be able to play based on what he heard earlier in the day.
“I was told that there was a very little chance we were gonna play,” he said. “They said there is a chance at 5 p.m., but I was just kind of waiting around and seeing. I was very relaxed. He was around Benoit Paire so I guess the New York state called and said he shouldn’t play. It was back and forth, back and forth. It was political. It was not us players, we were just sitting around.”
Mannarino had been placed under stricter enhanced protocols at the tournament. The 32-year-old was contact traced to Paire, a fellow French player, following his positive test for COVID-19 last weekend. Paire was removed from the draw before play got underway.
No other player yielded a positive test, but several other players, including Kristina Mladenovic, Kirsten Flipkens, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Richard Gasquet, Gregoire Barrere and Ysaline Bonaventure, were also placed in what Mladenovic called a “bubble in the bubble” due to their interactions with Paire.
Players who test positive for the virus are withdrawn from the draw. Initially the protocols called for anyone who had been in close contact with that person to also be removed, but those regulations were revised before the tournament began due to the guidance of local health officials. Players found to be in contact with the infected are placed under enhanced protocols and restricted to their hotel rooms, unless they have a match or a training session. They are kept separate from the rest of the field as much as possible, and are not allowed to access most player areas on site or at the hotel.
Mladenovic, who is scheduled to play in a second-round doubles match on Saturday, voiced her displeasure with the conditions.
“It’s like we are prisoners, or criminals,” she said on Thursday. “For even the slightest movement, we have to ask permission even though we are tested every day and had 37 negatives. It’s abominable. The conditions are atrocious.”
In a post to her Instagram story on Friday morning, Flipkens wrote she and the other restricted players were now strictly quarantined to their rooms. The Belgian lost in the second round of singles, and in the opening round of doubles on Thursday.
“Just got the news we are ORDERED from the Nassau County Department of Health to STAY IN OUR ROOM,” she wrote. “While just last night we got the bad news that we had to stay here until next weekend, at least they told us we still had the same protocols [practice, special gym area, separate room on site] to follow as before.”
“And now all of a sudden we have to quarantine in the room?”
Two hours later, she posted a video of what is presumably the view from her hotel room, set to Queen’s “I Want To Break Free.” Earlier in the week Flipkens told ESPN she had spent limited time with Paire on Friday before the US Open began.
“It’s not that I am close to him [Paire] or anything,” she said. “It’s just that there were others who I knew sitting with him. I was there for 10 or 15 minutes before I had a massage, and sat with them for another half-hour after.”