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The U.S. Open just got another greenlight.

One day after the United States Tennis Association said it would hold the Grand Slam as scheduled as long as the government said it could, Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the proposal a thumbs up.

“The @usopen will be held in Queens, NY, without fans from August 31 to September 13,” Cuomo tweeted on Tuesday. “The USTA will take extraordinary precautions to protect players and staff, including robust testing, additional cleaning, extra locker room space, and dedicated housing & transportation.”

After Cuomo’s announcement, USTA CEO Mike Dowse released a statement on the the association’s plans moving forward with the tournament:

“We are incredibly excited that Governor Cuomo and New York State have today approved our plan to host the 2020 US Open and 2020 Western & Southern Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. We recognize the tremendous responsibility of hosting one of the first global sporting events in these challenging times, and we will do so in the safest manner possible, mitigating all potential risks.

“We can now give fans around the world the chance to watch tennis’ top athletes compete for a US Open title, and we can showcase tennis as the ideal social distancing sport. Being able to hold these events in 2020 is a boost for the City of New York and the entire tennis landscape. We will have more details and an official announcement tomorrow.”

Being allowed to run the tournament is somewhat of a silver lining for the association, which has had to get rid of more than 100 jobs in the wake of the coronavirus-caused recession. International television contracts will also help offset the amount of money lost from ticket sales and other grounds revenue.

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The tournament would be the second Grand Slam of the season to play on as scheduled — the Australian Open played out in January but the French Open was moved to the end of September and Wimbledon was canceled altogether.

Though the tournament will go on scheduled, but not as it has in the past, players around the world have remained undecided about whether they would be willing to make the trip to the U.S.’s former epicenter of the coronavirus.

Women’s world No. 1 Ash Barty, reigning U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal and men’s world No. 1 Novak Djokovich are among the top contenders who have expressed reservations of competing in the U.S. Tennis Championship this year.

“Most of the players I have talked to were quite negative on whether they would go there,” Djokovic said.

The governor did provide some encouraging updates on the coronavirus in the state Tuesday.

“Total COVID hospitalizations fell to 1,538 yesterday — the lowest since March 20,” Cuomo tweeted. “The 3-day rolling average in daily COVID fatalities is at 24, a new record low.”

With Associated Press