COVID19 rumors swirl at the US Open around postponed Mannarino/Zverev singles matchup

Well, Ace has been watching the U.S. Open and just become aware of a controversy involving the scheduled Men's singles match between #5 seed Alexander Zverev from Germany and #32 seed Adrian Mannarino from France.

Adrian Mannarino

Photo Credit: Carine06 from UK / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

At this writing, their match was to have begun about an hour ago. Match officials, lines persons, and ball persons were all present, however, neither of the players showed up. Zverev was later seen sitting in his private box, maskless and shirtless, watching another match.

As you may recall, Mannarino was one of the French players who were forced into self-isolation after another French player, Benoit Paire, was forced to withdraw after testing positive for COVID19.

ESPN's announcers are aware of the situation, but, no explanation at all has been given to them by USTA or tournament officials. Speculation is rampant that Mannarino either has showed symptoms of COVID19 and is being re-tested, has failed a COVID19 test, or is protesting the treatment of he and other men and women players who were put into self-isolation after having spent time with Paire before he was withdrawn.

I'l keep an eye on what's going on and provide an update later. 

UPDATE: Both players are now on the court, 2:17 PDT. 5:17 EDT, warming up for their match. Still no official word as to what happened. There have been unsubstantiated rumors that health officials from New York questioned whether Mannarino should be allowed to play as well as speculation that Mannarino was staging a mini-protest regarding the self-isolation bubble.

Ace will let you know as soon as he learns anything new.

UPDATE#2: Well, Ace did a little searching and found that, as reported by Tennis.com, the tournament issued the following official statement at 5:43 p.m., EDT: 

"The Zverev-Mannarino match was delayed while a collaborative dialogue with health officials was conducted today. Communication with the players was ongoing during the afternoon to keep them updated at all times. Given the sensitivity of the medical issues involved, the USTA is not able to provide further details."

Sensitivity of medical issues involved? Not able to provide further details? Ace calls bullshit on that! What's so damn sensitive about saying neither player tested positive for COVID19? Or, if someone is  still awaiting new test results, it sounds more like a cover-up to me. Sounds like they don't want anyone to think their "bubble got burst!"