The organizers of the Australian Open want to negotiate a reduction of the mandatory two-week quarantine for tennis players, which is currently required for all foreign visitors to arrive due to the coronavirus. Craig Tiley, executive director of the inaugural grand slam, believes that an exception will be made for players who will only be in a secure tennis bubble in Australia without contact with the public.
–
Rafael Nadal na French Open.
Michel Euler, ČTK / AP
–
Tiley is convinced that in January the Australian Open will be organized according to plans, including all preparatory tournaments. Melbourne Park is set to play until January 18-31, before the ATP Cup and tournaments in Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart.
“If a player were to get stuck in a hotel for two weeks just before the start of the season, that would not work,” Tiley told the Australian AAP news agency. “You can’t ask players to go to quarantine for two weeks and then leave it and be ready to play a grand slam,” he added.
Tennis in Ostrava and MMA have been exempted, footballers can train
–
Roger Federer and Serena Williams, for example, have already announced their participation in the Australian Open, but according to Tiley, players will not come unless they have the opportunity to prepare properly for the tournaments. “We are trying to negotiate that we will create a quarantine space in which they could train and move between the hotel and the courts during those two weeks,” he added. Clearly they need to have it in two weeks.
Two grand slam tournaments took place this year under extraordinary conditions. At the US Open and French Open, tennis players were locked in a bubble and had to pass coronavirus tests before the start. Wimbledon was canceled.
Melbourne is one of the worst affected cities in Australia, during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, a night curfew was even imposed and a lockdown applied for six weeks. Nevertheless, the organizers plan to hold the Australian Open with spectators, they want to fill up to 50 percent of the capacity of the complex.
– .
