Doubles Grand Slam Champion Forced to Withdraw From US Open 2020 Amid Coronavirus Protocols Debate

Recently Benoit Paire tested positive for the COVID-19 bug and news broke that he was in contact with a few other players. This spiraled off into a whole new can of worms, as the US Open 2020 authorities imposed their bubble on these players. One of those players is doubles Grand Slam champion, Kristina Mladenovic.

Unfortunately, things have gotten even worse for Mladenovic. This is because her partner, Timea Babos, and she were forced to pull out of the US Open 2020.

The decision came mere hours before they were expected to face Alison Riske and Gabriela Dabrowski. As it turned out, the French player received a COVID-19 quarantine notice from the Nassau County public health officials.

“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.

“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.”

Kristina Mladenovic was angry about the conditions at the US Open 2020

Mladenovic was less than satisfied with the “nightmare” she suffered, owing to the US Open 2020 health protocols. During her second-round loss to Russian player, Varvara Gracheva, all hell broke loose.

She insisted that she felt like a prisoner inside the “bubble within a bubble”. Mladenovic felt that the extra precautions were unnecessary, as she turned in “thirty negative tests”.

To make matters worse for her, the enforced quarantine also means that she cannot travel to Istanbul in the coming week. In addition to that, she was also expected to make an appearance in Rome.

However, the quarantine severely hampers her ability to prepare for those two tournaments. Meanwhile, poor Babos gets the short end of the stick, through no fault of her own.

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