After a nearly three-hour delay to start the match, fifth-seeded Alexander Zverev came back from an early deficit to beat Adrian Mannarino 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in the third round at the US Open on Friday.
The United States Tennis Association cited a conversation with health officials as the reason for the late start.
"The match was delayed while a collaborative dialogue with health officials was conducted today," the organization said in a statement. "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."
Originally slated to begin around 2:30 p.m. ET, following the conclusion of the Angelique Kerber-Ann Li match, the court on Louis Armstrong Stadium sat empty for hours, with no formal announcement from the tournament about the status of the match. The officials and ball kids left the court about 30 minutes after it was expected to start.
Mannarino had been put under stricter enhanced protocols at the tournament after being contact traced to Benoit Paire, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week before the tournament began. According to Mannarino, he was preparing to head to the court for the match Friday when he was stopped by an official.
"The tour manager came to talk to me and explained the situation," Mannarino said after the match. "The state department of health took over, [and] the city [had] actually allowed me to play with a new protocol [last week] and obviously the state took over the decision. [They] took over to say I've been exposed to a positive case, obviously, so I should be quarantined in my room and not be able to go to the tennis court and play the match today."
According to Mannarino, he was told they were trying to overturn the decision, and that Zverev had agreed to push back the match to make sure he could play. He said he was told he would be allowed to play around 4:30 or 4:40 p.m.
During the delay, Zverev was seen lying in a chair on the balcony of his suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium, looking at his phone. He later said he had been told there was a slim chance they were going to be able to play the match Friday.
"It was not in our hands," he said. "It was not the tournament's decision or the players' decision to play or not play. It was more politics, bigger people than us.
"We were just waiting. They told us 5 [p.m.] was the last time we are going to go on court if we're going to go on court. The chances of us going on court were very slim. Yeah, I thought we might not play today."
Mannarino said he would now have to quarantine in his hotel room for seven days, before he is allowed to travel to his home country of France. He is one of several players, including Kristina Mladenovic, Kirsten Flipkens, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Richard Gasquet, Gregoire Barrere and Ysaline Bonaventure, who were required to partake in the enhanced protocols following their interactions with Paire.
Players who test positive for the virus are immediately withdrawn from the tournament. Initially, the protocols called for anyone who had been in close contact with that person to also be removed, but those regulations were revised before the tournament began due to the guidance of local health officials. However it is unclear if that has been reversed yet again.
Players found to be in contact with the infected individual are put in what Mladenovic has dubbed, "the bubble in the bubble," and restricted to their hotel rooms, unless they have a match or a training session. They are kept separate from the rest of the field as much as possible, and they are not allowed to access most player areas on site or at the hotel.
Mladenovic, who is scheduled to play in a second-round doubles match Saturday, voiced her displeasure with the conditions.
"It's like we are prisoners or criminals," she said Thursday. "For even the slightest movement, we have to ask permission even though we are tested every day and had 37 negatives. It's abominable. The conditions are atrocious."
In a post to her Instagram story on Friday morning, Flipkens wrote she and the other restricted players were now strictly quarantined to their rooms. The Belgian player lost in the second round of singles and in the opening round of doubles Thursday.
"Just got the news we are ORDERED from the Nassau County Department of Health to STAY IN OUR ROOM," she wrote. "While just last night we got the bad news that we had to stay here until next weekend, at least they told us we still had the same protocols [practice, special gym area, separate room on site] to follow as before."
"And now all of a sudden we have to quarantine in the room?"
Two hours later, she posted a video of what is presumably the view from her hotel room, set to Queen's "I Want to Break Free." Earlier in the week, Flipkens told ESPN she had spent limited time with Paire on Friday before the US Open began.
"It's not that I am close to him [Paire] or anything," she said. "It's just that there were others who I knew sitting with him. I was there for 10 or 15 minutes before I had a massage, and sat with them for another half-hour after."