US Open under threat as New York major 'not confident' of August public gatherings

Prize: US Open trophy
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The US Open could be the third tennis Grand Slam under threat, after New York mayor Bill de Blasio said he was "not confident" the city would be open to public gatherings until after August.

The French Open has been moved from May to September before Wimbledon was cancelled entirely, for the first time since World War Two, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to decimate the sporting calender.

US Open qualifying is due to start on August 24 with the main draw currently schedule to run from August 31 to September 14.

De Blasio said this week: "We're confident at this moment we can reopen the schools in September.

"But, we're not confident about June, we're not confident about July and we're not confident about August that we could have people gathering together again in large numbers."

The New York Times reports that the United States Tennis Association expect to make a decision about the US Open.

"We don't have a hard date set yet (to make a decision), just because things are changing so fast," USTA chief executive Michael Dowse said.

"You can imagine the runway to ramp up the U.S. Open is not a short runway, so I'm thinking probably the latter part of June, sometime in that June time frame."

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