The 2020 US Open was the 140th edition of tennis's US Open and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It was held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York. The tournament was an event run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and was part of the calendars for the 2020 ATP Tour and the 2020 WTA Tour, the top professional men's and women's tennis circuits, respectively.
Held during the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament saw changes in format and personnel compared to previous editions. As a result, withdrawals and opt-outs became a theme of the competition. Defending men's singles champion and world No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 9 Gaël Monfils withdrew due to COVID-19 safety concerns, while No. 4 Roger Federer, No. 12 Fabio Fognini, and No. 15 Stan Wawrinka opted out for other reasons. On the women's side, defending singles champion and world No. 6 Bianca Andreescu did not return due to safety concerns, nor did No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, No. 2 Simona Halep, or No. 5 Elina Svitolina, among others. Further, the qualifying rounds of the tournament, in addition to the mixed doubles and juniors draws, were not held due to the pandemic.
Men's singles world No. 1 Novak Djokovic made headlines by becoming the first top-seeded player to be disqualified from a Grand Slam singles tournament when he was defaulted from his fourth-round match for hitting a ball out of frustration that inadvertently hit a line judge in the throat. Although accidental, Djokovic's actions were deemed to be in violation of a Grand Slam rule regarding ball abuse, and he was disqualified from the tournament.
Dominic Thiem won the men's singles title for his first Grand Slam title. He became the first new Grand Slam men's singles champion since 2014 with his five-set defeat of first-time Grand Slam finalist Alexander Zverev. The women's singles competition was won by Naomi Osaka, who defeated Victoria Azarenka in three sets to capture her second US Open title and third Grand Slam title overall. Osaka arrived to the final wearing a black face mask bearing the name of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy shot to death in Cleveland in November 2014. The tournament took place during the George Floyd protests, and Osaka wore similar masks for each of her other six matches, each with a different name of a Black American who died as a result of unjust violence from police or other citizens in the United States.
Tournament
The 2020 US Open was the 140th edition of the tournament and took place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park of Queens in New York City, United States, where it has been held since 1978. The tournament was held on 17 Laykold hard courts for the first time.
The tournament consisted of the men's and women's singles and doubles draws, men's and women's wheelchair singles and doubles draws and a wheelchair quad singles and doubles draw. Both doubles draws were cut to 32 pairs instead of the standard 64. Due to COVID protocol decisions made by the New York state government, the USTA and US Open cancelled the draws for qualifying matches, mixed doubles, and junior matches, a decision that was sharply criticized by lower-ranked players, bringing accusations of the tournament "catering to the top". The wheelchair events were initially not scheduled to be held, due to a change that would have removed them from the event every four years due to a conflict with the Summer Paralympic Games, but the events were reinstated following the postponement of the 2020 Summer Paralympics to 2021 and criticism from several wheelchair players, notably Dylan Alcott.
The tournament used two of the three main show courts at the National Tennis Center – Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium. Five of the complex's 18 total courts, including Grandstand, the main stadium of the 2020 Western & Southern Open, which was held in New York City instead of its usual Cincinnati venue, were not used for the tournament due to the lack of players.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The US Open is normally the final major tournament of the year, scheduled during August and September. It was instead the second major of the year due to the cancellation of Wimbledon to June 2021 and the rescheduling of the French Open to late September. In June 2020, it was announced that the event would take place without spectators for the first time in the tournament's history, and the first time in all the Grand Slam tournaments' 143-year history, due to concerns relating to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Players would not be required to quarantine upon arrival, but were subject to regular COVID-19 testing, both prior to arrival and throughout the tournament, and all players and personnel were required to wear a face mask upon entering the grounds except while practicing, training, and working out. To reduce staff, electronic line judges were used on most matches, excluding those held on the two main show courts.
In the event a player was deemed a close contact of someone who had tested positive, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and New York City health officials initially stated that the player could continue play, but would be subject to "enhanced" health protocol, including daily testing and restricted access to facilities. On September 5, the USTA announced that health officials in Nassau County, where most players were residing in hotels, had issued 14-day quarantine orders "for all individuals who had prolonged close contact to a person who previously tested positive", thus impacting their ability to continue competing in the tournament.
The effects of the virus were seen both before and during the tournament. COVID-19 precautions necessitated the cancellation of the qualification matches and the ATP and WTA rankings were the sole metric used to determine entry into the tournament aside from wild cards. Each singles field contained 120 players who gained entry via their ranking and eight wild card entries. This differed from previous years where 16 players in both men's and women's singles entered their draws through qualifying.
Many players cited safety concerns due to the pandemic as reason to withdraw from the tournament prior to its start, including men's players Rafael Nadal, Gaël Monfils, Stan Wawrinka, Alexei Popyrin, Nick Kyrgios, and Kei Nishikori, and women's players Bianca Andreescu, Simona Halep, Ashleigh Barty, Elina Svitolina, Kiki Bertens, Belinda Bencic, Wang Qiang, and Barbora Strýcová, among others. All in all, the women's singles competition was hit the hardest, as 24 of the top 100 ranked players were absent from the competition. In addition, Benoît Paire was forced to drop out of the tournament due to a positive COVID-19 test. This test also led to the forced withdrawal of the top-seeded women's doubles duo of Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic prior to their second round match due to potential exposure to Paire. Additionally, the men's singles third round match between Alexander Zverev and Adrian Mannarino was delayed for three hours due to a "collaborative dialogue with health officials", as a tournament statement phrased it, to determine whether Mannarino could play in the match after his exposure to Paire.
Players
The men's singles competition featured seven players ranked in the top 10 in the ATP rankings at the time of the tournament. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic received the top seed, followed by Dominic Thiem, Daniil Medvedev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Djokovic was the clear odds-on betting favorite entering the competition, followed by the other top four seeds. Three previous US Open champions, as well as two previous finalists, were included in the field: Djokovic, a three-time champion; one-time champions Andy Murray and Marin Čilić; and one-time finalists Kevin Anderson, entering as a replacement for Nick Kyrgios, and Daniil Medvedev. Several notable players were missing for non-COVID-19 issues. No. 4 ranked and five-time champion Roger Federer was injured, while No. 12 Fabio Fognini and No. 15 Stan Wawrinka opted out to prepare for the upcoming clay court season. Eight players, all from the United States, entered the draw as wild cards, and three players with a protected ranking, including American player Jack Sock, who replaced Federer.
The women's singles tournament was far more affected by withdrawals than the men's singles; of the players ranked in the top ten, only four competed. The top seed in the draw went to world No. 3 Karolína Plíšková, followed by Sofia Kenin, Serena Williams, and Naomi Osaka. Despite being seeded third and fourth, Williams and Osaka entered the tournament as odds-on favorites, having been given equal betting odds to win the title, followed by Plíšková and Kenin. Included in the draw were five previous US Open champions: six-time champion Serena Williams, two-time champion Venus Williams, three-time champion Kim Clijsters, who entered as a wild card, and one-time champions Angelique Kerber and Sloane Stephens. Three previous finalists also competed: Victoria Azarenka, Karolína Plíšková, and Madison Keys. Previous champions Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur were scheduled to compete in the event, but withdrew prior to the competition. Eight players, consisting of Clijsters and seven American players, gained entry to the tournament as wild cards, while five were entered with a protected ranking and an additional two competed as alternates.
Doubles draws were topped by Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah on the men's side, and Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic on the women's side. Each draw contained 32 pairs, with four wild card entries.
Singles players Men's singles Men's singles players Champion Runner-up Dominic Thiem Alexander Zverev Semifinals out Pablo Carreño Busta Daniil Medvedev Quarterfinals out Denis Shapovalov Borna Ćorić Andrey Rublev Alex de Minaur 4th round out Novak Djokovic David Goffin Jordan Thompson Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Matteo Berrettini Frances Tiafoe Vasek Pospisil Félix Auger-Aliassime 3rd round out Jan-Lennard Struff Ričardas Berankis Taylor Fritz Filip Krajinović Stefanos Tsitsipas Mikhail Kukushkin Cameron Norrie Adrian Mannarino Casper Ruud Salvatore Caruso Márton Fucsovics J. J. Wolf (WC) Roberto Bautista Agut Karen Khachanov Corentin Moutet Marin Čilić 2nd round out Kyle Edmund Michael Mmoh (WC) Mitchell Krueger (WC) Steve Johnson Kwon Soon-woo Gilles Simon Marcos Giron Lloyd Harris Maxime Cressy (WC) Juan Ignacio Londero Egor Gerasimov Cristian Garín Federico Coria Hubert Hurkacz Jack Sock (PR) Brandon Nakashima (WC) Ugo Humbert Emil Ruusuvuori Ernesto Escobedo (Alt) Grégoire Barrère Grigor Dimitrov John Millman Roberto Carballés Baena Christopher O'Connell Miomir Kecmanović Milos Raonic Richard Gasquet Andrey Kuznetsov (PR) Andy Murray Dan Evans Norbert Gombos Sumit Nagal 1st round out Damir Džumhur Alexander Bublik João Sousa Pedro Martínez Yasutaka Uchiyama Pedro Sousa Federico Gaio John Isner Sebastian Korda (WC) Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (WC) Mohamed Safwat Dominik Koepfer Mikael Ymer Marc Polmans Marco Cecchinato Reilly Opelka Albert Ramos Viñolas Jozef Kovalík Evgeny Donskoy Pablo Andújar Dušan Lajović Stefano Travaglia Attila Balázs Ulises Blanch (WC) Diego Schwartzman Jason Jung Dennis Novak Peter Gojowczyk Lorenzo Sonego Pablo Cuevas Paolo Lorenzi Kevin Anderson Go Soeda Yūichi Sugita Aljaž Bedene Mackenzie McDonald (PR) Kamil Majchrzak James Duckworth Taro Daniel Jérémy Chardy Tommy Paul Hugo Dellien Andreas Seppi Nikoloz Basilashvili Guido Pella Feliciano López Laslo Đere Federico Delbonis Tennys Sandgren Gianluca Mager Philipp Kohlschreiber Leonardo Mayer Andrej Martin Ivo Karlović Sam Querrey Jannik Sinner Thiago Monteiro Yoshihito Nishioka Jiří Veselý Thiago Seyboth Wild Denis Kudla Radu Albot Bradley Klahn Jaume Munar
Women's singles