International tennis stars begin to arrive

INTERNATIONAL tennis stars are already arriving in Australia ahead of the first charter flights of players and support staff next week.

Croatia’s former world No.12 Borna Coric is believed to have been the first player to land in the country, while Canadian sensation Denis Shapovalov touched down on Thursday.

Coric hasn’t played since shoulder surgery in May, while Shapovalov competed at this month’s Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, where he defeated Rafael Nadal.

Shapovalov, ranked 14th in the world, is playing in the ATP Cup in Sydney, with Canada’s campaign starting against the US on January 2.

Top-10 stars Nadal and Ons Jabeur and Olympic champion Belinda Bencic all played in the Abu Dhabi exhibition event and tested positive for Covid-19 – but Shapovalov avoided that fate.

Australian Open rules state all players and support staff must return a negative PCR test in the 72 hours before flying to Melbourne or Sydney.

They must also be tested on arrival and go into isolation until a negative result is confirmed, proof of which will be required to receive tournament accreditation.

Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley said all players competing in Melbourne would stay at Crown accommodation.

“This will be one of, if not the safest place to be in the world in January, because of that rigorous process everyone has been through to get here on the precinct,” Tiley said.

“All players are staying in the same accommodation, so we have a minimised risk environment at Crown and they’ll be staying there as a group.

“There will be testing on site, we’ll be managing their movements and they get straight into the cars.

“So in 2021, we were about protecting the community from the players, who were coming from environments that were ravaged with the virus and we didn’t have it.

“In 2022, it’s about keeping the players and our patrons on site from not getting Omicron or any variant of the virus.”

Simona Halep and top-10 men Matteo Berrettini – Australian player Ajla Tomljanovic’s boyfriend – and Casper Ruud are set to arrive on Monday.

Some players and support staff may not fly in until January if they are competing in only the Australian Open.