‘Want rest? Stop feeding mice’

Melbourne – Australian Open players have been told not to feed mice at their quarantine hotel in Melbourne after world number 28 Yulia Putintseva complained she could not sleep for the rodents scurrying around her room.

The Kazak swapped rooms earlier this week after finding a mouse but said her new room was also infested. She shared a video of a mouse jumping out from behind a closet on social media.

Victoria state police minister Lisa Neville said on Wednesday authorities would take care of pest control but suggested there might be more to the story.

“As I understand, there may have been some feeding going on,” she said. “I’d just encourage them to minimise interaction with the mice. We will keep doing pest control if we need to but, hopefully, that pest control work that was done will have fixed the problem.”

More than 70 players and their entourages are confined to their hotel rooms for 14 days and unable to train for the 8-21 February Australian Open after passengers on three charter flights returned positive tests for the novel coronavirus. –