As Serena, Nadal eye records, virus looms

Easy as it is to assemble a list of significant Australian Open story lines, from Rafael Nadal's bid for a men's-record 21st Grand Slam singles trophy to Serena Williams' try for her 24th, from Novak Djokovic's attempt to win a third consecutive title at Melbourne Park to Sofia Kenin's defense of her first major championship, and so on, nothing hangs over the upcoming two weeks quite like questions involving the coronavirus.

There is, after all, still a pandemic in progress.

"During the tough months of quarantine in Spain," said Nadal, who equaled Roger Federer at 20 majors, three ahead of Djokovic, by winning the French Open in October, "(there) have been too many problems to think about tennis, no?"

And no matter how much better Australia has contained its COVID-19 outbreak than countries such as the United States, a reminder of the precarious nature of a large, international sports event came just a handful of days before the scheduled beginning of the year's first Grand Slam tennis tournament on Monday (Sunday EST): A full day of competition at the halfdozen tuneups in Melbourne was postponed because of a positive test for a worker at a hotel that housed 160 players in January.

The draw for the Australian Open was pushed back a day, too.

Before the 24-hour break was announced, Australian player Nick Kyrgios captured a common sentiment, tweeting: "Am I playing tomorrow?"

"From a tennis point of view, you cannot prepare 100%," 2019 U.S. Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev said.