Tennis brats get backhand
AUSTRALIAN Open boss Craig Tiley has slapped down tennis players whingeing on social media about quarantine.
The tournament director blasted the “loudest” minority of players who complained online, with one even comparing the quarantine to a prison sentence.
Seven coronavirus cases have been linked to the grand slam event, with two others — a player and a non-player — reclassified as shedding from past infections.
One player is among the seven but is not in a health hotel as their case is under investigation with the possibility it could also be reclassified.
Mr Tiley, above, implored pent-up players to stop venting on social media.
“If you’ve got a complaint, come to me,” he said.
“I don’t have any problem with handling it. But I do have a problem if it’s someone that has been working round the clock and doesn’t get paid a lot of money and has a great passion for the game, loves the players, and is being treated like that. That hurts.”
Mr Tiley said claims that players were unaware of the risk of having to do a two-week hard quarantine if deemed a close contact of a case were “simply not true”, with language barriers possibly to blame.
Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut on Tuesday blasted the strict 14-day quarantine, saying they were “like jail”.
Kazakh tennis star Yulia Putintseva also campaigned for players to have 10 minutes of fresh air a day, complaining that her hotel room windows did not open.
But other players backed off their criticism after widespread backlash from unsympathetic Australians.
SUPERMODEL Miranda Kerr left her Hunter Valley property during a 14-day mandatory quarantine period in breach of the governmentissued “exemption” she had been granted to visit her seriously ill relative.
News Corp Australia can reveal Kerr, the wife of billionaire Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, received an official warning from NSW Police when they showed up to her lavish estate in rural Rothbury on October 5.
Kerr had arrived from Los Angeles and was approved by health officials to isolate at the $7.5m property she purchased last year, instead of in hotel quarantine.
Police confirmed on Tuesday “under the terms of an approved NSW Health exemption, she was allowed to leave the property for a specific purpose”.
It is understood that purpose was to see her ill relative who was in palliative care some hours drive away in the state’s north-west.
“The woman was required to complete a notification process prior to leaving the address, however, the process was not followed and she was issued with a warning,” the police statement said.
Health officials alerted police when they learned Kerr was not at the Hunter homestead known as “Loggerheads” and officers were called in to find she was not there. They later caught up with her at the home where she was issued the warning.
Kerr’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.