NEW YORK -- Nassau County health officials have issued strict new quarantine regulations for players who have been in contact with a person infected with COVID-19, bringing to an end the US Open's policy, endorsed by local health officials, of allowing such players to continue competing in the ongoing Grand Slam event -- albeit under strict, "enhanced" health protocols.
The first casualty of Saturday's policy reversal was the top-seeded doubles team of Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Babos, who were withdrawn from the draw not long before their scheduled second-round match against Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and American Alison Riske.
"Public health officials of Nassau County, N.Y., have issued quarantine notices for all individuals who had prolonged close contact to a person who previously tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus," the USTA said in a statement released a few hours after the doubles pair was removed from the tournament. "As the players are staying in Nassau County, the quarantine notices prevent any of these individuals from commuting to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City."
The Nassau County Department of Health told ABC News that once the contact tracing pointed to an identified close contact, the 14-day quarantine order was issued. The procedure is standard for someone who is temporarily residing in the county.
The Department of Health would not provide a timeline but said the order was issued once the department was made aware of the contact.
None of the seven players who had been under the enhanced protocols after being contact traced to Benoit Paire, the French player who was removed from the singles draw last Sunday, has tested positive for the coronavirus. Only the doubles team of Mladenovic and Babos will be affected by the decision in a competitive sense as the other players are already out of the tournament.
Should another player who is staying in Nassau County be traced to someone who has tested positive, he or she also would be removed from the tournament and obliged to quarantine. That was the policy during the first event in this "double-in-the-bubble" production, the Western & Southern Open. Guido Pella and Hugo Dellien were removed from that event after the positive test of their fitness trainer, even though both players tested negative.
"I am not happy with the way these kinds of circumstances, and this situation with the French players was managed," top seed Novak Djokovic said on Friday. "I am not happy to see that Dellien and Pella were in a very similar situation and were withdrawn from the tournament."
The enhanced protocols altered that policy.
How long the players affected by the Nassau County ruling must remain in quarantine in their hotel rooms, and how this decision might impact their travel plans or any restrictions they might face upon leaving, is still unclear. But for now they are staying put.
"The USTA is obligated to adhere to government guidance at the State, City and County level," the tennis organization's statement said. "All persons who were identified as having prolonged close contact with the infected player will quarantine in their rooms for the remainder of their quarantine period."
Most of the qualified main-draw players from this US Open are scheduled to play at the Italian Open in Rome next. That event begins the day after the US Open ends on Sept. 13.
Adrian Mannarino, one of the impacted players, was able to play his singles match against Alexander Zverev on Friday afternoon, although the match was delayed for hours while various New York City and state health officials negotiated his status. Nassau County affirmed its own authority in the aftermath because most of the players are staying there, at either of two USTA-endorsed hotels. Those lodgings feature health protocols developed by the USTA, and their managers work in conjunction with officials in the bio-secure "bubble" at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The Nassau County directive supersedes the enhanced protocols, under which players already were barred from almost all contact with their peers and barred from the controlled environments where players gather, either at the hotels or on site at the NTC. Confined to their rooms almost all of the time, the affected players had to wait in their rooms for a pre-arranged pickup when they needed to travel to the NTC to practice or play.
Mladenovic, the player who complained most bitterly about the enhanced protocols, said after she lost her second-round singles match: "What they are forcing us to go through is abominable. I want my freedom back. I feel like we are prisoners here."
Babos and Mladenovic won the French Open doubles title in 2019, as well as the doubles at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year. It is the only Grand Slam that has been completed thus far.