IMG Signs Robin Montgomery; Update on IMG Camps; One Positive Covid-19 Test at W&S/US Open Bubble; Lu Withdraws From US Open

IMG announced today that Robin Montgomery, who turns 16 next month, has signed a representation contract, meaning the left-hander from Washington DC has decided to forgo college for a pro tennis career. I spoke to Montgomery back in March after she unexpectedly won the $25,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Las Vegas about whether that title had led her to consider turning pro sooner rather than later:

CL: Does this change your timeline for turning professional?

RM: At this moment, I don't know. My mom kind of deals with that stuff. She wants to make sure I don't get overwhelmed with anything. This might change something, we don't quite know yet for sure.

Montgomery will be represented by Jill Smoller, Carlos Fleming and Caroline Ebner according to Liz Mullen of Sports Business Daily (article is behind a paywall). She has received a US Open wild card, and next week will be heading to New York from her base at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park Maryland to begin the pre-tournament testing and quarantine protocol. (Correction: Montgomery received a Western & Southern Open qualifying wild card, so she would have had to been in New York four days ago).

You may have noticed that the IMG banner ad is back at the top of the site, and I wanted to mention that although the normal sports camps are not happening this fall, there is one more week of the IMG Academy+ virtual camps, which are over at the end of August. For more information on the virtual camp, go to this webpage. Applications are open now for the 2020-21 school year with boarding at the Bradenton campus. See this webpage for more information on the boarding option. I appreciate the support of IMG during these challenging five months, and welcome their return. Crosscourt Consulting remains an advertiser, with their banner now located in the left sidebar. Thanks again to them and to OTZ Sports for their support as well. 

I was on a USTA media telephone conference held today to discuss the health and safety protocols for the Western & Southern Open, which begins with qualifying Thursday, and the US Open, which begins August 31st. Shortly before the conference call, the USTA announced that one person, not a player, had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus, and Stacey Allaster, the US Open tournament director, confirmed that the one positive, out of 1400 Tier 1 tests administered, was the second test the person took, not the initial one upon arrival. Allaster explained that the Tier 1 group "includes all the players, their guests, tournament off staff, officials and the medical teams, approximately about a thousand people in the tier one group."

The person was asymptomatic; state and local regulations require a 10-day quarantine for that person and a 14-day quarantine for a roommate or anyone else exposed to the positive person. Explanation of this protocol, as well as what happens if a player tests positive during the tournaments, can be found in the transcript of today's conference call. Also note that all singles alternates will come from the doubles players competing in the tournament, in order to keep the number of competitors in the bubble to a minimum.

After many withdrawals from the women's field at the US Open, the first withdrawal for the men in over ten days came today, with Rendy Lu of Taiwan, who had entered with a protected ranking, officially notifying the tournament that he would not participate. That moves Federico Gaio of Italy into the field. The latest men's entry list is here.

Unlike the women's field, there are no US men just a few spots out of the main draw, so it's unlikely additional wild cards will be awarded, as there have been for American women. The men's US Open main draw wild cards are: JJ Wolf, Maxime Cressy, Mitchell Krueger, Michael Mmoh, Thai Kwiatkowski, Brandon Nakashima, Sebastian Korda and Ulises Blanch.