Frances Tiafoe has coronavirus, exits Atlanta tennis event
Tiafoe was scheduled to face Tennys Sandgren on Saturday in the weekend tournament involving eight top American men’s players at Life Time Fitness in Peachtree Corners. The event is allowing a limited number of fans and not requiring masks, though will provide them if requested.
Frances Tiafoe has tested positive for the coronavirus and withdrawn from the All-American Team Cup tennis tournament.
Tiafoe was scheduled to face Tennys Sandgren on Saturday in the weekend tournament involving eight top American men’s players at Life Time Fitness in Peachtree Corners. The event is allowing a limited number of fans and not requiring masks, though will provide them if requested.
Tiafoe defeated Sam Querrey on Friday, but was showing symptoms after the match and a test was positive.
Tiafoe, a 22-year-old who reached the 2019 Australian Open quarterfinals, left the event site and was replaced by Christopher Eubanks. Tiafoe was captain of Team Stars, playing against John Isner’s Team Stripes.
Top-ranked Novak Djokovic and three other pro players had tested positive for the virus after playing in a similar exhibition event in Europe. The pro tennis tours are suspended until August.
The No. 81-ranked Tiafoe wrote on Twitter that he had been training in Florida and had tested negative there as recently as a week ago. He said he has begun the quarantine protocol recommended by the tournament staff and will be retested next week.
Tournament officials said they had begun deep cleaning and sanitizing the event site, along with alerting people who may have been exposed.