The 2020 Australian Open was the last major tennis tournament to be held normally. No quarantines, masks, safety distances or empty stands. A year later, the oceanic Grand Slam, has adapted everything it could to be held normally. Or at least with the least possible restrictions.
The theory of the protocols to apply sounded excellent. A work of months (they have had them) to adapt the circuit to the needs of a Grand Slam. Three week delay to allow time for everything. Preview outside Melbourne (in Doha and Dubai). Two of the three weeks prior to the tournament released ATP or WTA tennis (Challenger and ITF tournaments do not stop) to allow the necessary and mandatory quarantine of all tennis players.
Already in Melbourne, the organization achieved advantages for all tennis players compared to any tourist visiting the State of Victoria (where Melbourne is located) these days. Anyone, in addition to the mandatory PCR to be able to travel, must maintain a strict two-week quarantine, even with a negative PCR before and upon arrival in Melbourne. Such conditions are already difficult for a person who is not engaged in high-level sport.
The tournament allowed tennis players, respecting that 14-day quarantine, to have five hours a day to train. Obviously it is not ideal to face a Grand Slam, but we are not in normal conditions. If the conditions are not the best, but they are the same for everyone, it is a matter of adapting.
The vast majority of tennis players stay in Melbourne. And a very select group of the best, in Adelaide (State of South Australia): Djokovic, Nadal, Time, Halep, Osaka y Serena. This group, with some extra benefit in the form of companions and training facilities. The reason to be in another city and another state, to play an exhibition in the days before the Grand Slam. So far the theory.
The problems come with the arrival of the tennis players and the implementation of everything prepared. In three flights (from Los Angeles, Dubai and Doha) five positives are discovered (four more this week). And here comes the first change in the protocol. From, in theory, suppose quarantine for the passengers of the positive environment, the organization ‘locks up’ the entire plane. 72 tennis players who are seen without the promised five hours of training for two weeks and locked in their hotel room.
The tournament is held in very high temperature and humidity conditions. And the men’s draw to five sets. The efforts that players face, making them after 14 days without stepping on a tennis court, is far from ideal.
The tournament has not considered any protocol change. In reality, what the tournament raises has no value. It is the State of Victoria and its regulations that govern. The delegate for the quarantine of the State of Victoria Emma was in charge of confirming it, exhaustively.
The affected players do not reject the quarantine since they know (knew) that it was mandatory. What has caused the discomfort is that despite traveling with the plane at 20% and by sections, the entire plane has been quarantined for a positive. They were not the initial conditions and they deprived them of training for 14 days. The quarantine was known and accepted, but not being able to train for 14 days if a passenger on the plane tested positive is what has angered the affected players.
The previous days of the tournament will take place at three speeds: the tennis players who are in Adelaide with quarantine, but more freedom, companions and off-court training facilities; tennis players who are in Melbourne, but can go out to train five hours a day; and finally the tennis players who will spend 14 days without leaving the room.
In between 14 tests to ensure they are virus-free when they can return to normal on January 29. The previous weeks are more difficult than expected. When Melbourne Park opens we will see how far the effects go.
Imagen de cabecera: WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images
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