Australian Open tuneup matches on Thursday cancelled due to Covid-19

MELBOURNE: Up to 600 players and support staff connected to the Australian Open will have to isolate until they have been tested for Covid-19 after a hotel quarantine worker in Melbourne returned a positive result for the virus on Wednesday. Play at the six warm-up events for the Grand Slam at Melbourne Park was heavily disrupted with organisers Tennis Australia cancelling all matches for Thursday.

“Those associated with the AO who quarantined at the hotel now need to be tested and isolate until they receive a negative test result,” the organisers of the Feb. 8-21 Grand Slam said in a statement. “We will work with everyone involved to facilitate testing as quickly as possible. There will be no matches at Melbourne Park on Thursday. An update on the schedule for Friday will be announced later today.”

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the positive case should not impact the Australian Open itself and testing of contacts will start from Thursday. “There is a number of about 500, 600 people who are players and officials and others who are casual contacts,” Andrews said at a news conference late on Wednesday.

Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, reintroduced the compulsory wearing of masks in indoor public places from

Thursday. Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria (CQV) said that a man, who worked his last shift at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne on Friday, returned a positive result on Wednesday. “We are contacting all Australian Open players, officials and support staff who were staying at the Grand Hyatt during the entire (quarantine) period,” said CQV, the government agency overseeing the quarantine of participants ahead of the Grand Slam.

“At this stage there is no impact on the tournament proper,” Andrews added. “I must say (the Australian Open) is important to us but the issues are much broader and that is about public health and public safety.