Why Are So Many Players Getting Sick on the U.S. Open?

Early within the second set of her second-round match on Thursday evening, a ball bounced simply previous Ons Jabeur’s attain, and he or she misplaced the purpose, throwing her arms up in exasperation.

On any regular day, Jabeur, the No. 5 seed, would most likely have reached the ball in time to return it down the road, however she has been taking part in whereas sick.

Jabeur, who reached the U.S. Open closing final 12 months, is amongst a number of gamers who’ve needed to deal with an sickness of some kind at this 12 months’s event.

Dominic Thiem of Austria retired within the second set of his second-round match, doubled over on the internet with what seemed to be a stomach-related challenge. Emil Ruusuvuori withdrew from the event earlier than his first-round match, citing an unspecified sickness. Tennys Sandgren, who didn’t advance out of the qualifiers, wrote on X, previously referred to as Twitter, that he grew to become sick after returning residence from the event.

“I got the us open bug,” he stated in a separate submit, including, “in a way still feels like I’m in the tournament but at home.”

It’s not simply gamers. The ESPN commentator John McEnroe stated on Tuesday that he had examined constructive for the coronavirus after feeling unwell.

It is unclear whether or not the entire gamers have the identical sickness, or whether or not their circumstances are linked, however one thing has been going across the U.S. Open.

Hubert Hurkacz appeared to wrestle throughout his second-round match on Thursday, when he was upset by Jack Draper of Britain. During the match, medical workers got here out to deal with Hurkacz for what didn’t seem like a bodily damage. Around the tennis grounds, sniffles and coughs might be heard, and a few gamers have been toting tissues of their baggage.

The string of sicknesses comes as a late-summer wave of coronavirus infections has been reported throughout the United States, with indications of an increase in circumstances within the Northeast and within the West.

Illnesses are potential at any event, the place gamers are sometimes in shut quarters and share amenities. But with gamers now not required to check for Covid-19, it’s troublesome to find out the reason for the sicknesses amongst them.

Health protocols on the U.S. Open have change into much less stringent since 2020, when spectators weren’t allowed to attend the event and when gamers took to the empty courts in face masks.

When followers had been allowed to return in 2021, they had been required to indicate proof of vaccination in opposition to the coronavirus. That requirement has since been dropped, and people attending the U.S. Open this 12 months don’t want to indicate proof of vaccination, present a unfavorable coronavirus take a look at or put on masks.

After keen her method — simply barely — to a first-round win, Jabeur stated she had the flu. In her second-round match, she appeared to wrestle once more, coughing on court docket a number of occasions, together with throughout her interview after beating the unseeded Czech participant Linda Noskova in three units.

Jabeur stated later in a news convention on Thursday that she had been sick for a couple of week.

“I’m taking a lot of medicine,” she stated, including that she “basically took every medication” the U.S. Open docs have.

Jabeur stated her abdomen had been “fine,” however she famous that she knew different gamers had been fighting abdomen points. She appeared to waver on whether or not she had the flu or one thing else.

“I think I got a flu or something,” she stated on Thursday evening.

It was unclear whether or not Jabeur, who performs her third-round match on Saturday in opposition to the No. 31 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, had taken a coronavirus take a look at to rule out the potential of an an infection.

“I’m a zombie because I have a flu,” she stated.