CNN
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Ball girls and boys will put on gloves on the BNP Paribas Open worldwide tennis event in Indian Wells, California to fight the corona virus outbreak, organizers introduced.
After a case of COVID-19 was confirmed within the Valley, the desert east of Los Angeles, organizers made the choice to cancel the event, a assertion introduced
“Presently, there’s too nice a threat to the general public well being of the Riverside County space to carry a big assembly of this dimension,” stated Dr. David Agus, professor of Medication and Biomedical Engineering on the College of Southern California. on sunday
“It isn’t within the public curiosity of the followers, the gamers and the neighboring areas that this event takes place. All of us have to come back collectively to guard the neighborhood from the coronavirus outbreak.”
The choice to cancel the occasion was made after session with the Facilities for Illness Management (CDC) and the State of California.
Exterior of the 4 grand slams, Indian Wells is among the most prestigious occasions of the tennis season.
Dubbed the “fifth grand slam,” the event, which is situated 130 miles east of Los Angeles, attracts a number of the largest crowds for a tennis occasion in North America. The event presents equal prizes for women and men, with a complete prize pool of barely extra $17 million ($8,542,680 per tour).
Most of the world’s high gamers, together with males’s world No. 2 Rafael Nadal, had already arrived in California for the occasion the place qualifying was scheduled to start on Monday, with essential draw matches scheduled for Wednesday.
“We’re very disillusioned that the event is not going to happen, however the well being and security of the local people, followers, gamers, volunteers, sponsors, workers, distributors and everybody concerned within the occasion is of the utmost significance,” stated our event director. Tommy Haas. “We’re ready to carry it at one other date and can discover choices.”
Any ticket holder might request a refund or credit score for the 2021 event.
Steve Simon, president and CEO of the Girls’s Tennis Affiliation (WTA), emphasised that the main target is firmly on “defending the well being of our gamers, workers, volunteers and followers who attend our occasions.”
“The WTA empathizes with these affected by the coronavirus on this area and around the globe,” it stated in an announcement.
“We’re disillusioned that our followers won’t be able to come back out to look at the occasion, and our gamers are additionally disillusioned that they won’t be competing for the following two weeks, together with the sponsors who assist the occasion. Nevertheless, we perceive that the choice was made within the curiosity of public well being and security, which is the best precedence at the moment.
“It’s too early to take a position on what’s going to occur with different tournaments that may comply with. We are going to proceed to observe the state of affairs intently. Well being and security will at all times come first.”
Nadal, 33, reacted to the information on Twitter, calling the unfold of the coronavirus “unhappy”, whereas Romanian participant Sorana Cirstea criticized to the WTA, saying she solely realized of the information on Twitter.
![A ball boy wears a rubber glove as a preventive measure against the new coronavirus.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/200307141538-ball-boy-coronavirus.jpg?q=x_38,y_121,h_1652,w_2937,c_crop)
The competition organizers introduced on Friday preventive measures to assist cease the unfold of the brand new coronavirus with the expectation that Indian Wells will go forward.
Ball girls and boys needed to put on gloves on the courtroom, as did eating places, meals service staff and volunteers on the entrances.
Though it’s often a ball boy’s job to take care of the gamers’ towels, they’d not have to the touch the towels. Gamers would deal with their very own towels on the courtroom, inserting their towels on a chair in the back of the courtroom in the course of the recreation.
Greater than 250 hand sanitizing stations have been arrange on the complicated, and interplay between followers and gamers is predicted to be restricted.
A mixed males’s and ladies’s event is scheduled for Miami later this month, however no adjustments to that occasion have been reported.
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After Miami, the lads’s and ladies’s excursions head to Europe for the beginning of the clay courtroom season which incorporates, amongst others, an ATP and WTA occasion in Rome, Italy, the standing of which continues to be to be decided.
The brand new coronavirus has contaminated greater than 108,000 individuals worldwide and killed greater than 3,800. in accordance with to CNN’s account.