Governing Bodies
IT’S A ‘CLOSED’ US OPEN AS FANS ARE BARRED
Despite major challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) is set to announce this week that it will hold the 2020 US Open with the support of the men’s and women’s tours.
The tournament is expected to run as originally scheduled from Aug 31 to Sept 13, but without spectators, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, according to four tennis officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans had not been announced and formal government approval had yet to be secured.
Even if the tournament is confirmed this week, more than two months will remain before it begins, and outside forces, including the path of the virus and global travel restrictions, may still scuttle the USTA’s plans. The field may also be thinner than usual, with athletes making individual decisions about whether to compete.
Still, after lengthy meetings and negotiations with tennis’s other governing bodies, the USTA intends to proceed with the US Open in its traditional late-summer dates with the support of its primary sponsors and ESPN, which is paying more than US$70 million (S$97.5 million) annually in rights fees to the organisation mainly to televise the tournament.
In a normal year, the US Open would be the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament. But the men’s and women’s tours have been shut down since March because of the public health crisis. The start of the French Open, normally the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, has been postponed until late September. Wimbledon, the oldest of the major tournaments, was cancelled for the first time since 1945.
“Our team has literally worked around the clock to figure out a way we can have the US Open and do it in a safe way,” Patrick Galbraith, the president of the USTA, said in a conference call with more than 400 men’s players and coaches last Wednesday (June 10).
There has been considerable resistance from international players to the centralised US Open plan.
Players will be subject to frequent coronavirus testing. With few exceptions, they will be lodged together at a hotel outside Manhattan, and some restrictions are expected to be placed on their movement to protect their health. Even without spectators, social distancing is critical to the plan in the event of a player or staff member contracting the virus.
“Without having close social contact, we feel if one player gets it, it’s not going to spread,” Galbraith said in the conference call. “Our infectious disease specialists are confident on that. They are going to be pulled out of the environment, but you have to have close contact to get this.”
To reduce the number of people at the National Tennis Centre, the USTA also plans to reduce the amount of support staff that players may bring to New York to as few as one team member. That would represent quite a change for the game’s biggest stars, who typically travel with large entourages including family.
The men’s No. 1, Novak Djokovic, who is from Serbia and based in Monaco, has criticised the restrictions as “extreme.” As if to underscore the point, he organised a series of exhibition tournaments this month in the Balkans that began with an event last week in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, with fans in the stands, ball kids on the court and players hugging and high-fiving.
The women’s No. 1, Ashleigh Barty, who is from Australia, has also expressed uncertainty about committing to play in the Open. So has Simona Halep, the women’s No. 2, who is from Romania.
“Not only because we’re in the middle of a global pandemic,” Halep said. “But also because of the risk of travel, potential quarantine and then the changes around the tournament.”
Once the center of the coronavirus, New York has had a steady decrease in new cases and in deaths.
“The situation is steadily improving,” Eric Butorac, the USTA’s director of player relations, said during Wednesday’s conference call. “I want to make people understand New York has taken this incredibly seriously.” Butorac also said that by the time of the Open, the USTA did not expect players to have to isolate themselves upon arrival in the United States before playing. “The idea of a 14-day quarantine is not something you need to be concerned about,” he said.
Last week’s call was often contentious, with one former US Open singles champion, Marin Cilic of Croatia, even clamouring for more prize money given the conditions players would face travelling to the tournament.
But the ATP board of directors, which governs the men’s tour, ultimately supported the USTA’s decision to go forward, according to an ATP official familiar with the board’s decision.
The USTA does not require approval from the men’s and women’s tours to hold the US Open, but did prefer to secure it before proceeding.
The plan still includes moving the Western & Southern Open, a combined men’s and women’s tour event scheduled earlier in August, to the National Tennis Centre from Mason, Ohio, to create a tennis doubleheader. The Citi Open, a combined men’s and women’s event in Washington, could still be the comeback event for the tours earlier in the month.
The US Open singles qualifying tournaments are not expected to be played. That would reduce the number of people at the tournament site and the official hotel. But the USTA, which has committed to roughly US$52 million in prize money, is providing more than US$2 million apiece to the men’s and women’s tours to compensate lower-ranked players affected by the absence of qualifying.
The reluctance of some stars to commit and the absence of qualifying have led some players to argue that in the interest of fairness, the Open should offer reduced ranking points this year or even no ranking points.
The USTA has rejected that idea because it could compromise its existing contracts by turning the event into an exhibition.
In mid-April the USTA said its decision on whether to hold the Grand Slam this year will be made in June, and playing it without fans is on the table but highly unlikely.
The US Open is held annually in New York City, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre was even turned into temporary hospital to help in the battle against the virus.
Last year’s edition drew an all-time attendance record of nearly 740,000 fans and the event is the engine that drives the governing USTA.
-NEW YORK TIMES
Kirsty Coventry became the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the most powerful person in sport, on Monday in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.
The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body, and at 41, the youngest since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.
Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who, like her, is an Olympic champion — he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.
Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands” and Coventry would bring “conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective” to the role.
Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.
Aside from her parents, who were present at the ceremony in Lausanne, there is her husband Tyrone Seward, who was effectively her campaign manager, and two daughters, six-year-old Ella, who Bach addresses as “princess”, and Lily, just seven months old.
“Ella saw this spider web in the garden and I pointed out how it is made, and how strong and resilient it is to bad weather and little critters,” said Coventry, who takes over officially at midnight Swiss time Monday (2200 GMT).
“But if one little bit breaks it becomes weaker. That spider web is our movement, it is complex, beautiful and strong but it only works if we remain together and united.”
‘Pure passion’
Coventry said she could not believe how her life had evolved since she first dreamt of Olympic glory in 1992.
“How lucky are we creating a platform for generations to come to reach their dreams,” she said to a packed audience in a marquee in the Olympic House garden, which comprised IOC members, including those she defeated, and dignitaries.
“It is amazing and incredible, indeed I cannot believe that from my dream in 1992 of going to an Olympic Games and winning a medal I would be standing here with you to make dreams for more young children round the world.”
Coventry, who served in the Zimbabwean government as sports and arts Minister from 2019 to this year, said the Olympic movement was much more than a “multi-sport event platform.”
“We (IOC members) are guardians of this movement, which is also about inspiring and changing lives and bringing hope,” she said.
“These things are not to be taken lightly and I will be working with each and every one of you to continue to change lives and be a beacon of hope in a divided world.
“I am really honoured to walk this journey with you.”
Bach, who during his tenure had to grapple with Russian doping and their invasions of the Crimea and Ukraine as well as the Covid pandemic, said he was standing down filled with “gratitude, joy and confidence” in his successor.
“With her election it sends out a powerful message, that the IOC continues to evolve,” said the 71-year-old German, who was named honorary lifetime president in Greece in March.
“It has its first female and African to hold this position, and the youngest president since Pierre de Coubertin. She represents the truly global and youthful spirit of our community.”
Bach, who choked back tears at one point during his valedictory speech, was praised to the rafters by Coventry, who was widely seen as his preferred candidate of the seven vying for his post.
After a warm embrace, she credited him with teaching her to “listen to people and to respect them,” and praised him for leading the movement with “pure passion and purpose.”
“You have kept us united through the most turbulent times.
“You left us with many legacies and hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart for leading us with passion and never wavering from our values.”
-AFP
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Former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took over the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach in a ceremony on Monday with the 2028 Los Angeles Games already threatening to fill her in-tray to overflowing.
Coventry, who starts her eight-year spell officially on Tuesday as the most powerful sports administrator in the world, became the first woman and first African to be elected head of the Olympic ruling body in March.
Much of the discussion during campaigning focused on the IOC’s need for change in its marketing strategies with several top Olympic sponsors having left in the past 12 months.
However, with Los Angeles hit by protests against immigration raids, and relations tense between state and city officials, and the U.S. government, the 2028 Games have become the major talking point in the movement that would ordinarily be focusing on next year’s Milano-Cortina Winter Games.
Coventry has long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a leading swimmer at Auburn University in Alabama. That will prove useful ahead of LA 2028, and she has said she will seek to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the Games.
Coventry will also need to find time to help secure the long-term finances of the movement. The IOC, which generates billions of dollars in revenues each year in sponsorship and broadcasting deals for the Olympics, has secured $7.3 billion for 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-2032. More contracts are expected for both periods.
COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand commercial opportunities for sponsors at the Olympics with the organisation’s finances in a robust state and the privately-funded LA Olympics a good place to start.
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, beating six other candidates, making history for the African continent, with the IOC having been ruled for 131 years by European or North American men.
Her background and being the first female president will be assets in a diverse IOC membership and the international makeup of Olympic stakeholders.
On Monday she was handed the golden key to the IOC by Bach, who was the organisation’s president for 12 years.
“I am really honoured I get to walk this journey with you. I cannot wait for anything that lies ahead,” Coventry said in her address to IOC members and other Olympic stakeholders.
“I know I have the best team to support me and our movement over the next eight years.”
Coventry will hold a two-day workshop this week to get feedback from members on key IOC issues.
“Working together and consistently finding ways to strengthen and keep united our movement that will ensure that we wake up daily… to continue to inspire,” she said.
A seven-time Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and in Beijing four years later.
“With her election, you have also sent a powerful message to the world: the IOC continues to evolve,” Bach said in his speech. “With Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic movement will be in the best of hands.”
-Reuters
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Penalties scored when a player accidentally touches the ball twice must be retaken, world soccer’s lawmaking body IFAB has said after Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had his spot kick disallowed in a Champions League last-16 match.
During a tense shootout with Real Madrid in March, Argentine forward Alvarez slipped and the VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right.
Although Alvarez converted the penalty, the goal was chalked off and Atletico went on to lose the shootout and were eliminated from the Champions League.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said the correct decision was made under the current laws but IFAB (International Football Association Board) has said that in such cases the penalty must be retaken.
Atletico Madrid v Real Valladolid – Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – April 14, 2025 Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo
“(When) the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick: if the kick is successful, it is retaken,” IFAB said in a circular.
“If the kick is unsuccessful, an indirect free kick is awarded (unless the referee plays advantage when it clearly benefits the defending team). In the case of penalties (penalty shootout), the kick is recorded as missed.”
The decision to disallow Alvarez’s penalty left Atletico boss Diego Simeone livid and the club’s fans outraged.
IFAB added that if the penalty taker deliberately kicks the ball with both feet or deliberately touches it a second time, an indirect free kick is awarded or, in the case of shootouts, it is recorded as missed.
The new procedures are effective for competitions starting on or after July 1, but IFAB said it may be used in competitions that start this month.
-Reuters
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