Two players within the US Open bubble have been dropped from the ATP and WTA Western and Southern Open and sent into quarantine after contact with a Covid-19 positive individual.
Tournament officials announced the move Wednesday, a day after learning that a non-player within the controlled environment had tested positive for the virus. The person who tested positive is in isolation for 10 days but contract tracing showed two players had been in “close and prolonged contact” with the individual.
Although tournament organizers didn’t name the players, Argentina’s Guido Pella and qualifying hopeful Hugo Dellien of Bolivia both posted videos on Instagram saying they were the players concerned.
Pella, ranked 35th in the world said he was sidelined after his personal trainer, Juan Manuel Galvan, tested positive for the virus.
“Juan Manuel Galvan tested positive two days ago (Monday),” Pella said, adding that his coach, Jose Acasuso, had also been in close contact with Galvan.
“Our two tests, Jose’s and mine, came back negative, we don’t feel anything. But the organisers took me out of the tournament ... Now protocol dictates that I be tested every two days. There’s no other option and hopefully these two weeks will go by quickly and I can be present at the US Open.”
Tournament officials said neither of the players who have been excluded has experienced any Covid-19 symptoms. But after input from the US Open medical team and in consultation with the New York City Department of Health, they were removed from the Western and Southern Open and sent into quarantine.
The tournament, usually in Cincinnati, was moved to New York this year to serve as a tuneup for the US Open, which starts August 31 without spectators in a bubble setup at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.
Women’s main draw play in the Western and Southern Open is set to begin Friday with men’s matches to start Saturday.
The Covid-19 outbreak that had shut down the ATP and WTA season caused a temporary hospital to be established on the tennis center grounds in April as New York battled a spike in cases.
