Inside the U.S. Open’s Underground ER

Underneath Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open, doctors run what one physician calls a full hospital built just for the two-week tennis tournament.

Quick Take

Mount Sinai Health System is now in its 13th straight year as the official medical provider for the U.S. Open.
A multidisciplinary team offers sports medicine, emergency care, imaging, and other specialized services on-site.
Doctors are stationed courtside from before the first match to after the last one ends each day.
The program also covers heat safety and mental health support for players during the event.

A 13-Year Medical Partnership Deep Beneath Arthur Ashe

Mount Sinai has served as the official hospital and medical services provider of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships for 13 straight years, a partnership that runs through the 2026 tournament. Dr. Alexis Colvin, the event’s chief medical officer, described the setup simply: her team brings a hospital to the grounds, positioned right underneath Arthur Ashe Stadium.

CBS News New York’s John Elliott spoke with Mount Sinai’s Dr. Melissa Leber and Dr. James Gladstone about the medical operation. The segment explained how the team works to keep players safe and healthy throughout the tournament’s two-week run. The U.S. Tennis Association says the goal is simple: use the latest medical tools and technology so players get top-level care no matter what happens on court.

Doctors On-Site From First Serve to Final Point

Dr. Brian Hainline, a neurologist who has worked tournament medical duty, said three doctors are always on-site: a neurologist, an orthopedic surgeon, and an internist. They arrive an hour before the first match and stay up to an hour after the last one finishes, sometimes working well past midnight.

Dr. Melissa Leber now leads player medical services for the tournament, overseeing care that spans emergency response to everyday injury treatment. Because multiple matches happen on different courts at the same time, quick communication between medical staff and each court becomes critical. Sports medicine research on tennis events has long identified this simultaneous-match problem as the biggest challenge to fast player care.

Heat Safety and Mental Health Add to the Playbook

Beyond injuries, the medical team plans specifically for extreme heat. Mount Sinai’s staff prepares in advance to protect athletes, fans, and crew members from heat-related illness during the tournament’s late-summer matches. That planning became a bigger focus after several high-profile incidents of players struggling with hot conditions during long matches in recent years.

The U.S. Tennis Association also built mental health support into its medical program, giving players access to licensed mental health providers throughout the event. Officials have said the effort reflects a broader shift in professional sports, where mental health is treated with the same seriousness as physical injuries.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mount Sinai physicians, including infection prevention specialists, built testing and screening protocols into the tournament’s health plan, working directly with tournament organizers. That experience showed how the medical partnership can adjust to new health threats beyond typical sports injuries, expanding well past the orthopedic and emergency care the team normally provides.

The arrangement gives U.S. Open players access to a level of on-site medical care rarely available outside a hospital. With matches running for hours in heat and physical strain building over two weeks, having doctors, imaging equipment, and mental health providers steps away from the court reflects how seriously the tournament treats athlete health as part of running the event.