Earlier this month the US Open faced a huge backlash from the public and tennis players alike over the decision to scrap the wheelchair event from this year’s tournament slammed as “disgusting discrimination”

The US Open made a decision to go ahead with a curtailed tournament due to COVID-19 including eliminating junior competitions and a reduced doubles event.

Dylan Alcott , Australian Paylaympic champion said it was blatant discrimination and the decision was made without consulting the players.

“I thought I did enough to qualify – 2x champion, number 1 in the world,” the 10-time Grand Slam winner wrote on Twitter. “But unfortunately I missed the only thing that mattered, being able to walk. Disgusting discrimination.”

In Talks

Following the criticism, the US Open organisers have decided to take another look at their decisions and posted an update on their Twitter account that they had productive talks with wheelchair athletes and acknowledged that they should have consulted players in a collaborative manner as they had with the ATP and the WTA. They are now collecting feedback from players to then decide on how best to move forward with the 2020 event. Watch this space. . . .

A statement on the US Open Wheelchair Competition: pic.twitter.com/r1uhdSl3hJ

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) June 19, 2020

Update

France’s Stephane Houdet, the 22-time Grand Slam champion said the players were presented with three options in a meeting on Friday, and are set to put them to a vote on Monday 22nd June.