The USTA has done a phenomenal job staging this tournament, but avoidable cock-ups have distracted from some great tennis
The Great Mannarino Mystery should have been no matryoshka moment, no doll-within-a-doll episode of Poirot in Lockdown City, but an open discussion about the haunting issue of this 2020 US Open: the virus and its fallout.
Instead, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) was temporarily paralysed by commercial sensitivity and legal timidity when New York health suits decided they wanted a walk-on part in the drama, and engaged Adrian Mannarino in discussions that dragged on for so long his third-round match against Alexander Zverev started nearly three hours late. He lost. So did tennis. It was a look-at-me moment for one set of anonymous pen-pushers, an avoidable cock-up for others.
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