Tennis tournament won’t hold play on Thursday to protest social injustice

NEW YORK — The Western & Southern Open tennis tournament says it will not hold play on Thursday to take “a stance against racial inequality and social injustice that once again has been thrust to the forefront in the United States.”

The men’s and women’s tournament says it will resume on Friday.

The U.S. Open is slated to start at the same venue on Monday.

The tournament’s announcement Wednesday night came after Naomi Osaka said she would not play in the semifinals and Canada’s Milos Raonic urged the sport to come together quickly and develop next steps to demand societal change following his quarterfinal win. 

Raonic is scheduled to play in the semifinals against No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. He feels the men’s and women’s tours need to determine what actions to take in a hurry following the police shooting of Jacob Blake last weekend in Wisconsin.

Japan’s Osaka pulled out of the women’s semis during Raonic’s 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5 win over Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic on Wednesday.

“I think it’s not about the three guys that are left in this tournament, I think it’s about everybody being on the same page,” Raonic said. “If four guys step up tomorrow but everything continues as normal on Monday when the U.S. Open starts, have we taken that next small step …?”

Raonic said he considered dropping out of his quarterfinal, but feels it will be a much stronger message if it comes from a larger group.

“I think to really make a difference, it has to be a banding together of athletes,” Raonic said.

Osaka announced she would not play in the women’s semifinals to get “a conversation started in a majority white sport.”

The last Top 10 seed in the women’s bracket joined professional athletes in basketball, baseball and soccer in demanding change after Blake was shot by police.

Osaka tweeted that as a Black woman, she feels compelled to pull out of the tournament to put a focus on police shooting Black people.

“I don’t expect anything drastic to happen with me not playing, but if I can get a conversation started in a majority white sport I consider that a step in the right direction,” she tweeted. “Watching the continued genocide of Black people at the hand of the police is honestly making me sick to my stomach.

“I’m exhausted of having a new hashtag pop up every few days and I’m extremely tired of having this same conversation over and over again. When will it ever be enough?”

NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games were called off Wednesday as athletes demanded racial justice.

Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., broke Krajinovic while he was serving for the match in the second set before taking the tiebreaker.

In the third set, Raonic fought off one match point on serve and then broke Krajinovic to go up 6-5. The Canadian then served out the match.

Osaka beat No. 12 Anett Kontaveit 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Wednesday afternoon. She was scheduled to play No. 14 Elise Mertens.

Victoria Azarenka will play eighth-seeded Johanna Konta in the other women’s semifinal. Konta beat Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-3, and Azarenka advanced in straight sets against Ons Jabeur.

Azarenka, who was No. 1 in 2012, acknowledged Wednesday that she had considered retiring at the start of the year. She’s currently No. 59 but has reached her first semifinal since April 2019.

“In January, I didn’t know if I was going to play at all,” she said. “So end of January, I decided: You know what? I might try, last time, and see what happens.”

In the men’s bracket, top-ranked Novak Djokovic had no problems with his creaky neck or the swirling winds during a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff that was by far his best showing of the week.

So far, no rust at all after the long layoff from competitive tennis.

“Everything was worked on in the last six months, I had plenty of time,” Djokovic said. “I worked on every single thing. It’s great it’s paying off so early after the break.”

Djokovic tested positive for COVID-19 after exhibition matches he organized in Serbia and Croatia in June with no social distancing.

In his match Monday against Ricardas Berankis, Djokovic had his sore neck massaged twice by a trainer during a 7-6 (2), 6-4 victory that included seven double faults. The neck has gotten better, and so has his overall game.

“Right now it’s not a concern,” he said. “It’s still not 100% but it’s close to that. I’ve been gaining more range in my movement of the neck every single day, so no complaints.”

In the semifinals, he’ll face Roberto Bautista Agut, who knocked out defending champion Daniil Medvedev earlier in the day.

Medvedev failed to close it out in the second set, and Bautista Agut rallied for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory that eliminated yet another top player out of the tune-up tournament for the U.S. Open. Djokovic is the only player left in the tournament with an ATP Masters 1000 title to his credit.

Medvedev led 4-3 in the second before letting it slip away. He converted only five of 20 break points in the match and swatted his racket against the court in frustration at the end.

“Even in the third set I had my chances and didn’t take them,” Medvedev said.

Bautista Agut reached his third Masters semifinal and his first since 2016. He needed a set to adjust to the breezy, cooler conditions on court.

“It’s never easy to come back and play good at first,” he said. “I have to be patient, to try to enjoy every single match I play here after six months without competing. Just pleased and happy to be in the semifinals.”

Medvedev hoisted the champion’s Rookwood Pottery cup last year in Mason, Ohio, where the tournament is held annually. This year’s event was moved to the U.S. Open site in Flushing Meadows because of pandemic precautions, creating a two-tournament event without spectators.

Tsitsipas also advanced to the semifinals when Reilly Opelka withdrew during the first set of their match Wednesday after getting treatment for an injured right knee.

— With files from The Canadian Press.

The Associated Press