Italian Open 2020 Officials Introduce Revolutionary Changes in This Year’s Event

Published 08/07/2020, 1:40 PM EDT

We are nearing tennis’ return. And in the resuming calendar, we have two hard court tournaments in Cincinnati and US Open. Followed by two clay-court tournaments Italian and French Open.

Just after the US Open, Madrid Open was also scheduled. But after a surge in COVID cases across Spain, the organizers were forced to cancel the event. This freed up a week between the hard court and clay court tournaments.

And now the ATP is thinking of turning the Italian Open into a mega ‘1500’ tournament featuring 96 players and being played over 10 days.

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“For the first time, the Italian Open may not end on Sunday” – Angelo Binaghi

In a recent interview with SportFace, Italian Tennis Federation Chief Angelo Binaghi talked about the proposed change. He says the ATP will be paying the change in the prize money as well. Binaghi is in talks with the government to clear the quarantine rules so that players from the US Open can also play.

“They asked us to stretch, go to 96 players, and they would pay us the difference in prize money. The ATP is urging us, and today I wrote to the minister, about the safe conduct for players who arrive in New York who can not quarantine because otherwise, they cannot play.” Binaghi said

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He also said that the Italian Open will slot in perfectly in between the two Grand Slams. Players coming from the US Open can have a few days rest and then play. And also players who want to play the French Open will have an adequate amount of days to rest before playing in Paris.

“For the first time, the tournament may not end on Sunday -. Now that we have two weeks we hope to kill two birds with one stone: we hope that those who reach the final round of the US Open can participate and we also hope to be able to give the possibility to those like Nadal, who usually make it to the bottom of the tournament, to have an adequate number of rest days before attending Paris“. Binaghi said

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The 2020 Italian Open Reveals Their Spectator Policy

Some interesting developments from Italy. Changing a whole tournament schedule will be a tough task. Let’s see how everything progresses.

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Written by:

Bhavishya Mittal is a tennis author for EssentiallySports, who is currently pursuing his Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Manipal University. A former sports editor for The Manipal Journal, Bhavishya has also worked for The New Indian Express. He has a keen eye for many sports but he is a particularly ardent follower of tennis, with a zest to create riveting articles on the ever-evolving sport.

Italian Open 2020 Officials Introduce Revolutionary Changes in This Year’s Event

“For the first time, the Italian Open may not end on Sunday” – Angelo Binaghi

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