Serena, Venus not staying at U.S. Open bubble hotels because of health concerns

For Serena Williams, and sister Venus, playing tennis during the COVID-19 pandemic is cause for extra precautions and awareness.

The legendary sisters are entered in the Western & Southern Open that begins on Saturday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, and that will be followed by the U.S. Open beginning on Aug. 31.

Serena has suffered pulmonary embolism issues in her lungs going back to 2011 when she had emergency surgery and more recently on the birth of her daughter Olympia in 2018. Venus was diagnosed in 2011 with Sjogren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease whose symptoms include joint pain and fatigue.

The sisters are staying in private housing for the duration of the tournaments rather than the USTA’s pandemic bubble hotels, the Long Island Marriott and the Garden City Hotel.

“I didn’t want to be in the hotel because I have lung issues so I felt like it was a big risk for me personally,” Serena said Friday. “In my house I can control a little more. As much as I want to be here, it’s been great, but I have genuine health issues and just I really needed to put my mind at rest and be able to perform in New York.”

Serena played her first tournament last week since the pandemic hiatus that began in March, losing to Shelby Rogers in the quarterfinals in Lexington, Kentucky, after beating sister Venus. She said she had some hesitancy about playing in New York.

“But I had a lot of great talks with several people at the USTA and the protocols they have are so intense it definitely helps me to feel safe,” Williams said. “Every day they are following through on those protocols. The government has to be involved, and the CDC, and that helps me feel a lot better.

“It’s really important for me to take so many precautions and I’m probably taking more than most people, but not more than Venus because she’s like in the same boat as me,” Serena said. “We together are really, really aware of what we do.”

Williams is using the Western & Southern as a tuneup for the U.S. Open, where she will be trying for her 24th Grand Slam title that would tie Margaret Court’s record. Both tournaments will be played without fans and Williams is the New York fans’ favorite.

“I don’t mind not having the fans. I would love if the fans were here, it’s so special playing with the fans and they really pull me up when I’m down,” Williams said. “But I’m like we need to be safe right now. We can all come back when we are all feeling better and all have fun.”

Djokovic upset that players were removed from tourney.  Novak Djokovic, who tested positive for COVID-19 along with his wife after helping organize an exhibition tour in Serbia and Croatia in June, was  perplexed about the situation of two players, Guido Pella and Hugo Dellien, who were taken out of the W&S earlier this week because they had been determined to be in close contact with a trainer who had tested positive.

The players had tested negative.

   Djokovic had been a Zoom conference call well before the two tournaments in which the medical situation, and the reasons for removing a player, had been discussed.

   “We talked on that Zoom call, we got information from the gentleman that if a player is not sharing a room in a hotel with his coach or physio or anyone from his team that is infected that is positive, and his results are showing that he's negative, he can still compete in the tournament . . .  So we thought that is the way.That's why a lot of players were upset, they were and still are upset, including myself, when I see that Dellien and Pella are treated in this way. Again, it's hard. I can't point fingers at anybody.”