Aus Open is going nowhere, says chief

AUSTRALIAN Open boss Craig Tiley has refuted a report the 2022 tournament could be moved overseas due to player issues with quarantine, declaring it will be in Melbourne.

A report on Monday said with border closures set to continue into 2022, player disquiet over having to quarantine in Australia could force the tournament to be moved to Doha or Dubai.

It was reported players would not be willing to go into hard quarantine in order to compete as they did this year.

This year players have been able to operate in a bubble at tournaments around the world, where quarantine has not been required.

But Tiley, while aware of the challenges organisers face, is adamant the Open will be staged in Melbourne.

“We’re going to be here in Melbourne, we are going to make it work, it’s going to be in January,” Tiley said at a SportNXT launch on Monday.

“We’re going to find a way to get the players here who are currently travelling the world in a bubble.

“We are the only country where quarantine is required. We’ve got to find a way to manage that and we will.”

Tiley said all the experiences gained in putting on the 2021 Open, which was forced back two weeks and played without fans early, would only help stage the event next year.

“I learned a lot every single day about managing uncertainty,” he said.

“The two enemies, mass gatherings and international travel, COVID doesn’t allow those two things to happen, and those are the pillars of our success. Being able to get around that was a challenge.

“We felt like we climbed Mount Everest, and unfortunately now we’ve found ourselves back at base camp. But the one positive thing is that we at least have a path because we have done it once.”