25 June

Organizers of the US Open tennis tournament say they will go ahead with this year's wheelchair competition, retracting their earlier decision to cancel the event.

The US Open is scheduled to be held from August 31 to September 13 in New York. The organizers had earlier decided to exclude wheelchair tennis from the Grand Slam tournament. They said they needed to reduce the number of players as part of anti-coronavirus measures.

But the move sparked a backlash from athletes. The International Paralympic Committee criticized the decision in a statement last Thursday, saying it discriminated against wheelchair tennis players.

The US Open organizers now say the wheelchair tennis event will run from September 10 to 13.

They say they decided to go ahead after holding multiple virtual meetings with a group of wheelchair athletes and the International Tennis Federation.

They say the wheelchair competition will feature men's and women's singles and doubles, all with draw sizes similar to past US Opens.

Japanese wheelchair tennis player Kunieda Shingo has won the men's singles at the US Open six times. Kamiji Yui, also from Japan, is a two-time champion in the women's singles.

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