Australian Open retain five-set matches for men

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley has ruled out any change in the best-of-five set format for men’s singles matches at the seasonopening tennis major as three more Covid-19 cases were reported among the international arrivals for the tournament.

There are 72 players now in hard quarantine and unable to practise because of nine active coronavirus cases — an increase in three since the weekend — among the incoming travellers to Melbourne.

In good news for players in lockdown, there were suggestions that some may be allowed to leave their rooms to practise before the 14-day hard quarantine period.

More than 1200 players, coaches, staff, officials and media have arrived on 17 flights since last Thursday to prepare for the Australian Open, which starts on February 8.

Covid-19 cases have been linked to three flights, from Abu Dhabi, Doha and Los Angeles.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said some of the cases linked to the tournament will be reclassified as “non-infectious shedding,” potentially allowing changes for some players in lockdown.

“If you’ve got, say, 30 people who are deemed a close contact because they’ve been on a plane with a case, and the case is no longer an active case but a historic shedding, well, that would release those people from that hard lockdown,” Andrews said.

Tiley rejected calls from some men’s players to reduce Australian Open matches to best-of-three sets instead of best of five.

“We’re a Grand Slam,” Tiley said. “Right now, three out of five sets for the men and two out of three sets for the women is the position we plan on sticking to.”

Some players have used social media to detail their perceived hardships of being in lockdown.

“These are high performing athletes and it is hard to keep a high-performing athlete in a room,” Tiley said. “This is the contribution that they have to make in order to get the privilege of when they do come out to compete for A$80 million in prize money.”