Top
US Open Ambience
Tennis News, US Open Tennis, WTA Tennis Players

‘Rejecting US Open was the right thing to do’ – Australian star has no regrets over Flushing Meadows snub


Ashleigh Barty says that withdrawing from the US Open was ‘the right thing to do’ as she couldn’t guarantee the safety of her team.

The world number one was the first big-name player to publicly announce she would not travel to the US, but a number of players have now followed her.

Defending champions Bianca Andreescu and Rafael Nadal have both withdrawn, as have WTP top ten players Kiki Bertens and Elina Svitolina.

Barty, though, says she was not trying to be a trendsetter, she was just trying to look after her people.

“That was a massive part of it for our team – accepting that this is something greater than what we can control, we can’t do anything about it,” Barty told ABC.

“We just have to play our part and do the right thing.

“[We] hope we get an opportunity some time in the year to get back to some kind of normal.”

In Barty’s absence, the top-seeding at the US Open would go to Simona Halep, although she is yet to make a decision yet herself regarding whether or not she will play.


By
0

Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.