World No. 3 Karolina Pliskova would rather the US Open went ahead without fans than not at all, saying women are used to playing in near-empty-stadiums.

The WTA and ATP tours have been postponed until July 13, but organisers are hopeful the US Open will go ahead behind closed doors in New York in August. Some players voiced their discomfort with the idea of playing major tournaments without fans, though, including Roger Federer, who said it would be “difficult” for him.

Pliskova pointed out that the 20-time Grand Slam champion had probably rarely played in a near-empty stadium in the way she and some of her female peers had because of matches being scheduled outside of prime-time slots.

“No matter how or what the conditions, it’s better to play some matches than not play anything,” Pliskova said. “If you have the chance to play a prime-time match, so there’s a lot of people and the atmosphere is great, it’s much better. But we can have matches where there is nobody, so I think it’s not that it would never happen. If you play at 1am, there’s not many people anyway.

“Maybe Roger, he never experienced that, but I think me and the girls overall have had experience of nobody (in the stands). I know for Roger for sure it has to be different thinking than for me, but I would definitely choose to play.”

Pliskova supports the much-talked about idea of a WTA and ATP merger, with the Czech player seeing it as an opportunity to gain equal visibility in terms of broadcast deals. The US Open 2016 finalist returns to competitive action for the first time since February on Wednesday, in the behind-closed-doors LiveScore Cup in Prague.

The Daily Telegraph