A group of Long Island Orthodox men served the United States Tennis Association with a lawsuit Friday for refusing to reschedule an upcoming upstate tournament so they could avoid having to play on the Sabbath.
The 12-member team – which includes nine Orthodox Jews – filed a discrimination suit on Friday against the USTA and its honchos in Manhattan federal court. It demands an injunction requiring the Sept. 27-29 USTA Eastern Adult Section Championships for players 55 and up in Schenectady, NY, to be rescheduled, so they could avoid Saturday matches and honor their religious beliefs.
“The defendants consulted and conspired among themselves and determined to discriminate against Sabbath-observing competitors and to deny the plaintiffs’ requests for accommodation,” the suit says.
The team – which won the Long Island division of the USTA’s summer league – had offered to play three games on Sunday, Sept. 28 or default a Saturday match and then play the rest of the games on other days. However, the USTA rejected the request.
Gordon Smith, the USTA’s executive director and a co-defendant in the suit, wrote the team’s lawyers Monday saying the organization doesn’t discriminate against anyone. He said the USTA had already pushed the event up a day to avoid the Rosh Hashanah holiday and that their request can’t be honored because it would put players at “undue risk.”
“Tennis is a physically demanding sport, and rescheduling the tournament for two days would require participants to play three matches on Sunday,” he wrote. “That would increase the risk of injury to our participants, particularly in light of the fact that this is a tournament for players who are 55 years and older.”`
Messages left with the USTA weren’t immediately returned.
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