Early within the second set of her second-round match on Thursday night time, a ball bounced simply previous Ons Jabeur’s attain, and she or he misplaced the purpose, throwing her arms up in exasperation.
On any regular day, Jabeur, the No. 5 seed, would in all probability 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 remaining final yr, is amongst a number of gamers who’ve needed to deal with an sickness of some kind at this yr’s match.
Dominic Thiem of Austria retired within the second set of his second-round match, doubled over on the web with what gave the impression to be a stomach-related subject. Emil Ruusuvuori withdrew from the match earlier than his first-round match, citing an unspecified sickness. Tennys Sandgren, who didn’t advance out of the qualifiers, wrote on X, previously often called Twitter, that he turned ailing after returning house from the match.
“I bought the us open bug,” he stated in a separate post, including, “in a method nonetheless seems like I’m within the match however at house.”
It’s not simply gamers. The ESPN commentator John McEnroe stated on Tuesday that he had examined optimistic for the coronavirus after feeling unwell.
It’s unclear whether or not the entire gamers have the identical sickness, or whether or not their instances are related, 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. Throughout the match, medical workers got here out to deal with Hurkacz for what didn’t seem like a bodily harm. Across the tennis grounds, sniffles and coughs could be heard, and a few gamers have been toting tissues of their luggage.
The string of diseases comes as a late-summer wave of coronavirus infections has been reported throughout the USA, with indications of an increase in instances within the Northeast and within the West.
Sicknesses are attainable at any match, the place gamers are sometimes in shut quarters and share amenities. However with gamers not required to check for Covid-19, it’s troublesome to find out the reason for the diseases amongst them.
Well being protocols on the U.S. Open have turn into much less stringent since 2020, when spectators weren’t allowed to attend the match 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 towards the coronavirus. That requirement has since been dropped, and people attending the U.S. Open this yr don’t want to indicate proof of vaccination, present a unfavorable coronavirus check or put on masks.
After prepared 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 courtroom a number of instances, together with throughout her interview after beating the unseeded Czech participant Linda Noskova in three units.
Jabeur stated later in a information convention on Thursday that she had been sick for a couple of week.
“I’m taking loads of medication,” she stated, including that she “principally took each treatment” the U.S. Open docs have.
Jabeur stated her abdomen had been “positive,” 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 feel I bought a flu or one thing,” she stated on Thursday night time.
It was unclear whether or not Jabeur, who performs her third-round match on Saturday towards the No. 31 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, had taken a coronavirus check to rule out the potential for an an infection.
“I’m a zombie as a result of I’ve a flu,” she stated.
