Tennis

It’s an old story. A venture to Paris filled with hopes for sun and blue skies. Instead, the air is cold and blustery, the skies are gray and there is some rain, too.It is hardly great tennis weather this week, and it is definitely not French Open weather at Roland Garros. And that is wreaking all kinds of havoc for players used to dripping with sweat under the late-spring sun and seeing balls jump off their rackets, fly through the warm, dry air, and pop off the usually hard red clay.With temperatures stuck in the mid 50s, a crisp wind and intermittent rain throughout the first day of the tournament, Simona Halep, Coco Gauff and Johanna Konta were among those wearing tights and long sleeves. Andy Murray wore tights, too, as he lost to Stan Wawrinka, who wore a short-sleeved turtleneck.The wardrobe changes may help the world’s top tennis players adjust their body temperatures, but adapting to a ball that feels like a rock coming off their strings may prove harder.Victoria Azarenka, a United States Open finalist who made quick work of Danka Kovinic in her first-round match Sunday, had a warning the other day for anyone hoping for some semblance of what this tournament has delivered in the past.“It’s not going to be a regular Roland Garros where the balls bounce high enough and the courts are fast,” Azarenka said. “We will have to adapt every day.”“It’s cold, it’s heavier, it’s more difficult,” said Dominic Thiem, who won the U.S. Open two weeks ago on the strength of his searing forehand.Getting warm is one thing. Thermodynamics is another.Rafael Nadal, the 12-time French Open champion who will play a first-round match against Egor Gerasimov of Belarus on Monday, is not so happy, especially since his game relies on super-heavy topspin that makes his shots bounce above the eyes of his opponents.“These are new balls and balls that are much slower than in previous years,” Nadal said during a news conference after training last week. “But given the cold and humid conditions, they are very short.”Indeed, in addition to changing the timing of the tournament from spring to fall because of the pandemic, tournament organizers did change their ball sponsor and supplier to Wilson from Babolat. But Guy Forget, the tournament director, said the Wilson ball passed a series of performance tests and no ball can overcome the inevitable effects of the chilly and damp weather conditions that are expected to continue in the coming days.Cool humidity makes the ball wet, and subsequently heavier. A wet ball also picks up clay, which also adds weight.There are also far less obvious forces that will jostle the memories of anyone who endured a high school physics class.Warmer temperatures increase the speed and kinetic energy of the molecules inside the ball. When a ball hits the ground, it compresses, then springs back to its full size. The faster those molecules move, the more kinetic energy and bounce they produce.Also warm air is slightly less dense than cold air, allowing a ball to travel faster and longer because there is less drag, especially with a tennis ball, which does not have a smooth surface.“How much faster will depend on the assumed temperature difference between warm and cold weather,” said Adrian Bejan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Duke University and an expert in thermodynamics.Bejan said higher humidity can help and on a hardcourt, damp air, which is a little less dense than dry air, might allow the ball to move faster. But the additional clay that the damp ball picks up during each point may very well diminish that effect.“Some of those balls we were using you wouldn’t give to a dog to chew,” said Daniel Evans of Britain, who lost to Kei Nishikori of Japan in five sets on Sunday. “It’s tough to get that ball to go anywhere.”Forget, who was once ranked as high as No. 4 in men’s singles, had this advice for players obsessing about the nontraditional behavior of the ball at a time when nothing about Grand Slam tennis is as it usually is: Deal with it, just as you would deal with the slippery grass that characterizes the first few days of play at Wimbledon compared with the hard, dry ground during the second week of the tournament.“This is part of what tennis is, playing in different conditions,” Forget said. “You have to adjust to it.”Adjustments can be both psychological and technical. The most basic move that players are making is loosening their strings. Looser stings increase the trampoline effect. John Isner, the big-serving American, has lowered the tension of his strings by roughly 15 percent.Not everyone is feeling bothered by the changes.“Me, I like the balls,” said Daniil Medvedev, the rising Russian with a quirky arsenal who has struggled to advance at Roland Garros and plays his first-round match Monday. “Tennis is a fun and interesting sport. Sometimes one player doesn’t like something, but another player will like it. So far, I love it.”As it nearly always does at Roland Garros, the conversation may begin and end with the performance of Nadal. He struggled at the Italian Open earlier this month. That tournament also took place in cooler than usual temperatures, and Nadal lost in straight sets on clay against Diego Schwartzman as his ball lacked its usual life.Nadal spent much of the pandemic training in the balmy climate of Mallorca, Spain, where he is from. One day into the tournament in Paris, one thing is very clear — he is not in Mallorca anymore.“We have to stay positive,” he said. “We have to play with these balls, I have to find the best game.”Karen Crouse contributed reporting from Paris. More

How to watch: From 3 a.m. Eastern to noon on Tennis Channel, and from noon to 3 p.m. on NBC; streaming on Tennis Channel and NBCSN apps.The twists of fate that determine tournament draws can seem quite cruel at times. Dominic Thiem and Rafael Nadal, who have faced each other in the past two French Open finals, are in the same half of the draw this time. Both start their campaigns on Sunday, with Nadal seeking his 13th French Open title and Thiem hoping to win his second consecutive Grand Slam tournament. But even without looking that far into the tournament, there are plenty of first-round matchups that seem as if they shouldn’t have happened until the third round at least.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are, at best, a guess and are certain to fluctuate based on the times at which earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Court Philippe-Chatrier | 10 a.m.Serena Williams vs. Kristie AhnSerena Williams, chasing a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title, is least comfortable on the red clay of Roland Garros — she has won only three of her major titles there. (Although it is a testament to her abilities that a tournament at which she has won titles can be considered weaker ground.) In the past three years, she has at least made it to the finals of each of the other Grand Slam events, but she has not made it past the fourth round at Roland Garros since 2018.At the United States Open this year, she seemed to leave every ounce of her energy on the court. Williams’s frustrations and ecstasies during her matches were broadcast as if to inform viewers that winning is not a straightforward process but a struggle that even one of the sport’s greats must grapple with every day. Now, she’ll face a familiar challenge on her path to victory in Kristie Ahn, a fellow American.Ahn and Williams faced each other in the first round of the U.S. Open as well, a bad break for Ahn. She reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open as a wild card in 2019 and seems perpetually on the brink of a breakthrough. With Williams once again in front of her, it seems unlikely that this year’s French Open will be her stage for that.COURT SUZANNE-LENGLEN | 9 A.M.Gaël Monfils vs. Alexander BublikGaël Monfils, the eighth seed, is unparalleled in his ability to entertain. An extremely athletic player, his pace allows him to sustain long points, and his use of circus shots is unique not just in variety but in frequency. Underlying the showmanship is a player who, on his best day, is capable of standing toe to toe with the world’s best. Although a regular in the second week of Grand Slam events, he has lost two matches in the lead-up to Roland Garros, and he will need to get up to speed quickly if he’s going to have a good result.Alexander Bublik, ranked 56th in the world, is best known for his serving ability. Many opponents tend to step back from the baseline to give themselves time to return it. But in a simple yet unorthodox counter, Bublik has taken up hitting low underarm serves sporadically, not only forcing his opponents to deal with an unusual ball, but making them shift their overall return positioning to be more to his liking. This strategy has drawn some ire from opponents, but there is nothing illegal or unsporting about it, and in a clay-court era defined by players like Nadal and Thiem, who both stand well behind the baseline, it may help rewrite the playbook.Court Philippe-Chatrier | NOONMarin Cilic vs. Dominic ThiemAt the U.S. Open, Thiem became the latest player to win a first major title as he outlasted Alexander Zverev in five sets. Before that, it was Marin Cilic, the winner of the U.S. Open in 2014, who was the latest first-time major champion.Cilic, who has not reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament since the 2018 Australian Open, has struggled to maintain the high level of play that made him a mainstay in the top 10 from 2014-18. In 2019, he did not even reach the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam, for only the second time since 2012. Cilic will now face the unenviable task of playing Thiem, who is both confident after his performance at the U.S. Open and generally more well suited for clay court tennis.Thiem has been a finalist at the French Open for the past two years, losing both times to Rafael Nadal. With his victory at the U.S. Open still fresh, Thiem is among the favorites to reach his third Roland Garros final, and, with Nadal having lost in the quarterfinals of the preparatory tournament in Rome, some think Thiem has a strong opportunity to challenge Nadal’s dominance.Thiem’s defensive game is well suited to clay, and with early reports on court conditions suggesting that this year’s surface at Roland Garros will be faster than in previous iterations, the sudden swing from hardcourts to clay may play into the hands of those who thrived in New York.COURT SIMONNE-MATHIEU | 8 A.M.Garbiñe Muguruza vs. Tamara ZidansekGarbiñe Muguruza, the 2016 French Open champion, was returning to her prime, reaching the final at the Australian Open, before the pandemic halted play. She had a disappointing result at the U.S. Open, losing in the second round to Tsvetana Pironkova, but showed upon her return to clay at the Italian Open that she is still on an upswing.During a run to the semifinals, she beat Victoria Azarenka and Coco Gauff before eventually losing in a tight three-set match against Simona Halep, the top seed at Roland Garros.Tamara Zidansek, a promising young Slovenian player, has a limited history on the WTA Tour, but at the lower levels of professional tennis, her greatest successes have come on clay courts. She is the two-time reigning champion of the Bol Ladies Open, hosted in Croatia on red clay, and she won the doubles competition at the Palermo Open alongside Arantxa Rus in August.Although she is faced with a nearly impossible task, Zidansek can make a good showing for herself. A good performance, even if it is a losing one, may give her the confidence that she can compete with established players on the biggest stages, and help her settle into her ascent on the tour. More

How to watch: From 3 a.m. Eastern to noon on Tennis Channel, and from noon to 3 p.m. on NBC; Streaming on the NBCSN app.The French Open begins on Sunday, with the first-round matches spread across three days instead of two in a departure from tradition. While some things have changed, the high level of play and the familiar faces are returning. Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka will be the marquee matchup around midday for U.S. audiences, but look out for a few more stellar matches to get this edition of Roland Garros off to a good start.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are at best a guess and are certain to fluctuate based on the times at which earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.Court Philippe-Chatrier | NoonAndy Murray vs. Stan WawrinkaMurray and Wawrinka last met at a Grand Slam in the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2017. Wawrinka, the 2015 French Open champion, persevered in five sets. Now, with both major winners still recovering from lengthy injury spells, they meet in the first round.Wawrinka skipped the United States Open to play preparatory tournaments on red clay, winning a challenger-level event in Prague in August before withdrawing from the subsequent Prague Open in the quarterfinals. After a first-round loss to an Italian youngster, Lorenzo Musetti, at the Italian Open, Wawrinka will be looking for a quick turnaround.Murray, a three-time major champion, has always been known for his ability to grind away at opponents. At the U.S. Open this year, his first Grand Slam singles event following his return to the tour after hip surgery, he was true to form, winning a tough five-set match against Yoshihito Nishioka. Although it was a vintage performance from Murray, he lost in the second round to Felix Auger-Aliassime in three sets, clearly struggling with the effects of his previous slog.Although Murray has beaten Wawrinka in most of their encounters, Wawrinka holds a 3-1 lead on clay. Wawrinka’s advantage will only be enhanced by his recent play on clay, while Murray has focused on hardcourts for the past few months. Expect a battle of high-quality tennis fueled by a rivalry built on bigger stages.Court Philippe-Chatrier | 5 a.m.Jannik Sinner vs. David GoffinDavid Goffin, ranked No. 12, lost in the round of 16 at the U.S. Open to a surging Denis Shapovalov in four sets. Goffin has consistently stayed in the top 25 since 2014, but he has not won a title since 2017. A runner-up at the ATP Tour Finals in 2017, Goffin seems to keep scratching the surface of being a top-tier player. He has fallen short so far, and the next generation may usurp him.Among that generation is Jannik Sinner, who is 19. The exciting Italian prospect is ranked 74th but has an impressive record. At the Italian Open, he dispatched Benoît Paire in two quick sets before overtaking the world No. 6, Stefanos Tsitsipas, in three sets. He lost in the third round to Grigor Dmitrov in another tough three-set match and appears entirely unfazed by the records of the titans whom he has started to play regularly.Sinner won the only previous meeting between the two, on hardcourts in Rotterdam earlier this year. But in the five-set format of the Grand Slam tournaments, Sinner has not proved able to last. For Goffin, the physical and mental test of a marathon may be to his advantage.Court Suzanne-Lenglen | 10 a.m.Johanna Konta vs. Coco GauffCoco Gauff, the young American star, had her worst Grand Slam performance at this year’s U.S. Open, losing in the first round to Anastasija Sevastova. To think that Gauff, at 16, could be genuinely disappointed with a first-round loss is a testament to her skill.Johanna Konta does not take Gauff lightly. “It doesn’t matter if she’s 14 or 40,” Konta said. “I think she’s there for a reason. It’s going out on court respecting the player that I’m about to play. I’m going to be playing against the tennis she brings, not her social media following, not her persona.”For Konta, ranked No. 13, the French Open has been a strange tournament. Having competed at Roland Garros five times, she lost in the first round on her first four attempts and then surged to the semifinals in 2019 before losing to Marketa Vondrousova in two very tight sets.Konta’s style focuses heavily on offense, which generally suits her on the faster surfaces. Gauff, playing in her first French Open, will have a slight advantage with her counterstriking and her consistency, which allows her to draw out longer points and force errors. Even for casual fans, this will be a matchup well worth watching.Court Philippe-Chatrier | 10 a.m.Simona Halep vs. Sara Sorribes TormoSimona Halep, the top seed and the 2018 Roland Garros champion, comes into this year’s French Open as a clear favorite. She skipped the U.S. hardcourt swing this summer, citing concerns over handling of health protocols, and stuck to her favored surface. She has won two clay court tournaments in succession, the Prague Open and the Italian Open, demonstrating along the way that she could dispatch rivals like Garbiñe Muguruza and Karolina Pliskova with relative ease.Halep’s short, angled shots are supremely effective on clay and can pull even the most mobile opponents into awkward positions on the court. That will create many problems for Sara Sorribes Tormo, whose speed is not up to par with that of the top players.Sorribes Tormo, ranked No. 70, has never made it past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament. Although she is most comfortable on the red clay of southern Europe, her best skill, volleying, is better suited for doubles than for long, drawn-out points. Against Halep, her chances seem slim, but as any coach will point out, if you can play well without becoming intimidated by your opponent’s reputation, you can keep your head held high and learn from a loss. More

Andy Murray is set to play Stan Wawrinka in the first round of the 2020 French Open: a major matchup that could never have taken place so early at a Grand Slam tournament when both were at their peaks for much of the last decade.It remains remarkably unclear how many fans will get to see them in person.“Life works in funny ways sometimes,” said Daniel Vallverdu, who coached Murray and is now coaching Wawrinka.2020 has been particularly strange, and this pandemic edition of the French Open is no exception. It was postponed from its traditional May and June dates to September and October because of the tennis tour hiatus. Though the draw went ahead as scheduled in Paris on Thursday, French Open organizers are still facing big questions about this year’s event less than 72 hours before it is scheduled to begin on Sunday.The initial plan (after the postponement) was to host as many as 20,000 spectators per day at Roland Garros Stadium. But a resurgence in coronavirus cases in France in recent weeks has forced the tournament leadership to significantly reduce the number of people on site.On Wednesday, Olivier Véran, France’s health minister, announced that large planned events in many parts of France, including the Paris region, would be limited to no more than 1,000 people beginning Saturday.Though the French Open was still planning on hosting 5,000 spectators per day, that now seems unlikely if it does indeed go ahead. . On Thursday after the draw, Jean Castex, the French prime minister, said in a French television appearance that the 1,000-person daily limit applied not only to fans but to all accredited personnel on site. That would include players and their team members, officials, security workers, reporters, broadcast technicians and others. According to the French Tennis Federation, the number of those accredited far exceeds the 1,000-person limit.“There is no reason we would not apply the same rules to everyone,” Castex said, when pressed on the issue. More

Naomi Osaka, fresh off her win at the United States Open tennis tournament last week, announced Thursday night that she would not compete in the French Open this month because of an injured hamstring.“My hamstring is still sore so I won’t have enough time to prepare for the clay — these 2 tournaments came too close to each other for me this time,” Ms. Osaka, 22, wrote in a message posted on Twitter. “I wish the organizers and players all the best.”❤️ pic.twitter.com/W0tLuvib5U— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) September 18, 2020
Osaka, who rose to No. 3 in the rankings this week, injured her left hamstring during the Western & Southern Open, the tournament in New York that preceded the U.S. Open. She withdrew from the final but was able to manage the injury during the Open by skipping hitting sessions on her days off between matches. She played each of her seven rounds with the left hamstring tightly taped.After winning the title on Saturday, she expressed uncertainty about being able to play in the French Open, the final Grand Slam of 2020, which is scheduled to begin in Paris on Sept. 27.“I haven’t gotten a full rest,” she said on Saturday. “I guess I’ll see what happens or how it feels when I get a rest.”The problem is that there is little time this year to rest between major tournaments. The French Open was moved from its usual dates in May and June because of high rates of coronavirus infection in France. The shift left only 13 days between the end of the U.S. Open and the start of the French Open, which gave those who advanced to the later rounds in New York little time to recover.Some have plunged back into competition immediately. Victoria Azarenka, who lost to Osaka in the U.S. Open final, is already in Rome, where she has won two rounds at the Italian Open and defeated Sofia Kenin, the reigning Australian Open champion, by 6-0, 6-0 on Thursday.The transition from hard courts to clay can be a challenge for some players, requiring different footwork and tactics. Osaka’s best results have come on hard courts, including her three Grand Slam singles titles: at the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020 and at the 2019 Australian Open. She has yet to advance past the third round at the French Open in singles in four appearances and has a middling 18-14 singles record on clay.With Osaka’s withdrawal, two of the top three players in the world are out of the French Open. No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, an Australian, already has withdrawn because of concerns about traveling during the coronavirus pandemic. Bianca Andreescu, ranked No. 7, is unlikely to play because of a foot injury.The French Open will also be missing more spectators than expected. On Thursday, tournament organizers announced that they were scaling back initial plans to host 11,500 fans per day because of new police restrictions linked to changes in coronavirus infection rates in the Paris region. Now, only 5,000 fans will be permitted each day and only on the main Philippe Chatrier court, which has a normal capacity of over 15,000. During the U.S. Open, Osaka focused attention on systemic racism, wearing seven black face masks with white letters spelling the names of Black people who had been killed by the police or by civilians.“The point is to make people start talking,” Osaka said at the awards ceremony, which, like the tournament itself, was conducted without fans in the stadium because of the coronavirus.“The quarantine definitely gave me a chance to think about a lot of things, what I want to accomplish, what I want people to remember me by,” Osaka said. “I think it definitely helped me out.”Osaka won her first Grand Slam title in 2018 at the U.S. Open but accepted the top award amid jeers from the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium. In that final, she had defeated Serena Williams in a straight-sets match during which Williams clashed with a chair umpire who called three code-of-conduct violations against Williams. The crowd, unclear on the rules and upset at the treatment of Williams, booed during the awards ceremony.Azi Paybarah contributed reporting. More

Eight days after his abrupt disqualification from the United States Open for accidentally hitting a line judge with a ball, Novak Djokovic said that he saw the incident as an opportunity to improve the mental side of his game and that he hoped he could be a “wiser” player as a result.“I’m working mentally and emotionally as hard as I am physically, trying to be the best version of myself on the court, off the court,” Djokovic said Monday from Rome, where he will compete in the Italian Open this week. “I understand that I have outbursts and it’s the personality and kind of player that I have always been.”He added: “Obviously I went through ups and downs in my career, managing to control my emotions more or less. But you’re alone out there, it’s a lot of intensity, a lot of pressure, and you have to deal with all of that.”Djokovic spoke with reporters at length Monday for the first time since he was defaulted in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. While behind in the first set against Pablo Carreño Busta, Djokovic hit a ball about 40 feet, from the court toward a back wall, where it hit a line judge in the throat. She collapsed, and Djokovic tried to comfort her. After a lengthy discussion with tournament officials, he was disqualified, upending the men’s singles draw.“The rules are clear when it comes to that,” Djokovic said. “I accepted it, and I had to move on.”Until then, Djokovic had not lost a match all season and was heavily favored to win the U.S. Open, which would have been his 18th Grand Slam tournament title. Dominic Thiem, seeded second, beat Alexander Zverev for the title on Sunday night in a thriller that ended with a tiebreaker in the fifth set.Djokovic admitted that his disqualification, although somewhat unlucky, was “not completely out of the blue” given his propensity for expressing anger on the court, which has sometimes included being reckless with equipment.At the 2016 French Open, he swiped his racket in anger and it slipped out of his hand, just missing a line judge. He could have been defaulted, but he went on to win the tournament — his only French Open victory.Later that season, he quibbled with a reporter at the ATP Finals after hitting a ball into the stands without hitting anyone. The reporter said it could have been dangerous for spectators.“It could have been, yes,” Djokovic said at the time, bristling at the reporter’s suggestion that the behavior might be part of a pattern. “It could have snowed in O2 Arena, as well, but it didn’t.”His defiance then appeared to be much different from his sentiment on Monday, when he said he was “really sorry to cause the shock and drama” for the line judge who was hit.“She didn’t deserve that in any way,” he said. “She obviously is volunteering as well and doing her work. She loves tennis, and she’s been there, as I understood, for quite a few years.”He stopped short of guaranteeing something similar would not happen in future tournaments, but said he would certainly remember it and learn from it.“I don’t think I’ll have any major issues coming back to the tour and being able to perform well and hit the tennis ball — of course, during the point,” he said.At the coming French Open, Djokovic will aim to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win each Grand Slam tournament twice. He said he was glad to have new goals to focus on right away, though he still considers the 12-time French Open champion, Rafael Nadal, as the clear favorite.“Rafa obviously decided to stay on clay and practice, and surely that gives him more advantage,” Djokovic said of Nadal, the 2019 U.S. Open champion who skipped an attempt at a repeat because of the coronavirus pandemic.“Even if he didn’t practice for that long on clay, he would still be the No. 1 favorite in Roland Garros or any other clay tournament because he’s Rafa,” Djokovic added. “Playing on clay, he’s the ultimate challenge.”Nadal is among many players, including second-ranked Simona Halep, who will be returning to major competition after declining to travel to the United States during the health crisis.“It’s obvious that to feel 100 percent, you need matches. But here I am,” Nadal said Monday. “I arrived with plenty of time to try to have the right practices.”At the Italian Open, Nadal will play his first match against Carreño Busta, who after facing Djokovic reached the U.S. Open semifinal.“It’s going to be a good test,” Nadal said. “I’m excited about going back to competition, without big expectations.”Halep figures to be the top seed in the women’s singles draw at the French Open because the defending champion, Ashleigh Barty, the WTA No. 1, does not plan to play.Like Nadal, Halep said she had “no regrets” about choosing to skip the U.S. Open.“Of course I’m sad I didn’t play, it’s normal, but I feel like my decision was great for the health issue and to feel relaxed inside,” Halep said.Halep, the 2018 French Open champion, won a WTA tournament in Prague on clay last month.“I always have been secure and happy on the clay, and now I’ve had four or five months playing only on clay — I’m not used to that,” Halep said. “I feel comfortable and ready to play here. I love this tournament. I love French Open, so hopefully I can play my best and win some matches.”Watching the U.S. Open and Djokovic’s disqualification, Halep said, was a reminder to consider the safety of others on the court.“We have to really be careful because people are around us and we don’t have to react that bad during the matches because it’s just a tennis match,” she said. “It was not nice for anybody.” More

When the United States Open announced its plans in June for this year’s tournament, it included the elimination of the junior draws, the singles qualifying draws and the mixed doubles draws because of the coronavirus pandemic. But perhaps the biggest outcry came from the smallest contingent of the tournament: the men and women in the wheelchair divisions.“It was a natural reaction, and very fair on their part,” the tournament director, Stacey Allaster, said in an interview on Sunday. “We did not make any decision lightly. It was always done on how we could mitigate risk for the health and well-being of all.”The tournaments were cut back because of a need to keep the number of people at the U.S.T.A. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to a minimum. But after 10 days of objections, the wheelchair tournaments were back on — at full strength.Andy Lapthorne, the 2019 champion in the quad singles division, said that “to be told you wouldn’t be coming back to defend the title, that was a tough pill to swallow.”Dylan Alcott, the runner-up to Lapthorne last year, described the omission of wheelchair players as “disgusting discrimination.” Allaster sharply disagreed with that assessment, saying that there had been cutbacks across all divisions, not just in the wheelchair tournaments.“At no time was there any form of discrimination,” she said.Alfie Hewett, the champion in wheelchair men’s singles in the two previous years, was unhappy with the initial cancellation but praised the reversal.“It’s hard, when the decision first came out, that we didn’t get consulted from a player point of view,” Hewett said. “We found out from social media. But the way they turned it around was obviously good.”Still, the athletes had support. Lapthorne praised Andy Murray, the British star who won the 2012 U.S. Open men’s singles tournament, for using social media to call attention to the wheelchair athletes.“That changes the game straight away,” Lapthorne said. “He has the profile to do that. There’s not many players out there who would have done that, so we have to thank him, because he had the courage to support us and back us.”Lapthorne, who lost in the round-robin stages of the quad singles tournament but won the doubles title alongside Alcott, said that wheelchair athletes felt validated by being heard and allowed to participate.“To make sure we’re included in these things the same as the able-bodied players is massive, and I think we’ve proven this week that there was no reason why this shouldn’t have happened,” he said.David Wagner, a runner-up in the quad doubles final and the most prominent American wheelchair player, praised the U.S. Open for how it had treated the wheelchair athletes as a full part of the show in on-court productions. But he said the scheduling could still have been changed to prevent the wheelchair tournament from being so heavily overshadowed by the other competitions.“Sometimes in wheelchair tennis, we don’t get quite the spectators that the able-bodieds get, right?” Wagner said. “So here we are playing the doubles final at the same time Azarenka and Osaka are playing. If that had happened, and this place was packed with fans, Louis Armstrong would have been about as dead as it was” already because of the virus, he said.Alcott, who among the players had been particularly critical of the U.S.T.A., found parity in proximity: The suite he was given inside Arthur Ashe Stadium was right next to that of one of tournament’s biggest stars.“I’m next to Osaka, and I really appreciate that,” Alcott said. “They’re treating us as equals. To the whole team, I appreciate them changing their mind.”Alcott lost the quad singles final on Sunday to the Dutch wild card Sam Schroder, showing the depth of the field in the division players which players have long cited as a reason for expanding the draw.Allaster said future accommodations were coming soon, including the long-desired doubling of the quad singles field from just four players to eight.“We will be the first Grand Slam to expand,” Allaster pledged. “It’s unfortunate that we never got the opportunity this year, but if it’s within our ability next year to do so, with everything going on with Covid, that would be a great new addition in 2021.” More

An experiment in automation that could change tennis has been well received at this year’s United States Open, but it might have been a bigger hit if Novak Djokovic had lost his cool on a court that was included in the trial run.The experiment is Hawk-Eye Live, a fully electronic line-calling system that was used for the first time in a Grand Slam tournament. It eliminates the need for line umpires, leaving only a chair umpire on court, and makes the machine the final and only word.“Most of the players really liked it. You never have to question one single call,” said Thomas Johansson, a former top-10 player who is now coaching a current top-10 player, David Goffin.Johansson and some others in the tennis community are convinced that if not for a sponsorship agreement with the fashion company Ralph Lauren, which supplies the uniforms for the line umpires, there would also have been all-electronic line-calling on the two main show courts, at Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium.“The players were really upset that they didn’t have it on all the courts, but there was a reason,” Johansson said. “Ralph Lauren.”But Stacey Allaster, the U.S. Open tournament director, said that sponsorship agreements — JPMorgan Chase Bank also sponsors the electronic review system — were just one factor in the decision to remain old school at Ashe and Armstrong.More important, Allaster said, was wanting Hawk-Eye Live to be foolproof and needing to decide several months ago whether to use it.“We weren’t sure if it was going to work, so what we wanted to make sure of was that we had this balance that never would Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong go down,” she said. “We always knew if the system failed on the outside courts, we would always have tennis.”The twist is that staying traditional on the main courts also played a role in the tournament’s losing Djokovic, the No. 1 men’s player, much sooner than expected.He was disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct in the first set of his fourth-round match at Ashe Stadium against Pablo Carreño Busta on Sunday, after inadvertently hitting a line umpire in the throat when smacking a ball toward the back wall after losing his serve.If Djokovic had struck the same ball on a court with Hawk-Eye Live, no line umpire would have been in the line of fire.“Novak would have been fine, everything would have been good,” said Bethanie Mattek-Sands, a veteran American player. “So it was kind of ironic.”Djokovic has apologized for hitting the judge and for the outburst, saying it would prompt him to “go back within and work on my disappointment.” But he has not spoken in detail about the incident, and it is not clear whether he failed to recall, in a flash of frustration, that line judges were on the court.The week before the Open, Djokovic played (and won) an entire tournament that used only the automated system. That was the Western & Southern Open, which was played at the U.S. Open site, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and became the first regular men’s and women’s tour event to go fully electronic.At this point in the U.S. Open, most of the matches have moved to Ashe and Armstrong stadiums, where judges are used. Wheelchair tournaments will still be played on the outside courts this week.“We know if players are unhappy with something, and I haven’t had one player come to me with any issues,” Allaster said.The system had made 225,000 calls with 14 errors during the first week of the tournament, said James Japhet, the managing director of Hawk-Eye North America, who has been in New York overseeing the system’s use.“Fourteen is a larger number than we hoped for,” he said. “But all things considered, 14 out of 225,000 isn’t too bad.”It turns out that even electronic line-calling is subject to human error.Japhet said the Hawk-Eye operator in the control room had sometimes selected the wrong service box, which meant that a few balls that landed in the correct service box were wrongly called out. Other errors occurred when the review official, who is responsible for determining foot faults with the aid of the Hawk-Eye cameras, failed to trigger the system, Japhet said.Introducing the system in New York without spectators presented other challenges. For outside courts that are close together, there was concern that, without crowd noise, players might mistake a call from another court as applying to their own. To avoid confusion, a prerecorded man’s voice was used on one court, and a woman’s voice on the adjacent court.Japhet sees another potential moneymaker here. “A tournament could use a sponsor’s name instead of ‘out,’” he said.That, of course, could risk a backlash if players and fans were subjected to hearing, say, “Ralph Lauren” 225,000 times.For now, the only debate that matters is whether the system should become part of the regular tour. It was used this time because tournament organizers wanted to keep the number of people on site to a minimum. Instead of the usual 350 line umpires, the U.S. Open made do with 74 this year.Hawk-Eye Live is clearly useful in speeding up play and providing greater accuracy. But it also eliminates the human element on two levels — by making line umpires obsolete and ending the suspense over player challenges.When tennis instituted electronic line-calling and video replay in 2006, Arlen Kantarian, then the chief executive of the United States Association, successfully pushed for players to have a limited number of challenges. Kantarian, a former N.F.L. executive, believed a system similar to professional football’s would create entertainment value.That has proved true. But has the time come to eliminate all doubt?In a quarterfinal on Wednesday, first Serena Williams and then her opponent, Tsvetana Pironkova, failed to challenge line calls that were incorrect and would have been overturned. Pironkova’s non-challenge was particularly important, coming at 3-3, 30-30 in the second set on a Williams second serve that should have been called a double fault, giving Pironkova a break point at a key stage of the match.“It would be one thing if we didn’t have the technology to get the call right all the time, but we do,” Mattek-Sands said. “Tennis literally has one million other stories that can make tennis exciting and entertaining.”Replays of close calls are still seen. “Any point-ending rally shot within 150 millimeters of the line goes up” on a screen, said Sean Cary, the senior director for officiating at the United States Tennis Association.But the call remains the call. There is no method for a player to contest it.As for line umpires, who are also often fans and ambassadors of the game, Allaster maintains that they can be converted to other positions.“We need to keep them engaged, because they are part of our mission to help us promote and grow the game,” Allaster said. “We can see it evolving with different roles.”For now, of course, the status quo still has status. The French Open, the Grand Slam tournament that starts later this month, will not use electronic line-judging. It is played on clay, where chair umpires still check the ball marks manually.The ATP Tour is expected to make wider use of Hawk-Eye Live in tournaments later this year. Carlos Silva, chief executive of World Team Tennis, an American league that has used the system for the last three years, believes the rate of adoption will increase even after the pandemic.“It’s time,” he said. “They will bring prices in line, because they will have more customers. Everyone hits the ball so hard. There’s no way for human eyes to see it better than a computer.”It also speeds up play and could decrease expenses. Though the system costs more than $25,000 per court, a tournament could save on wages, food and lodging for line umpires.But ultimately it will be up to the leaders of the U.S. Open and the other major tournaments to weigh the pros and cons and decide.“Right now our focus is to get to Sept. 13,” Allaster said of this particularly challenging edition of the Open. “This obviously will be a significant part of our debrief going forward.” More