Budge still aims to serve up a Classic

ASB Classic tournament director Karl Budge is hopeful for professional tennis in New Zealand this summer, if international players have to quarantine for only three days.

Plans for the Classic remain fluid, with the coronavirus pandemic still limiting travel to New Zealand and Australia.

Border restrictions are unlikely to be lifted anytime soon, but when the government announced this week that the Australian rugby team will be able to start training in New Zealand after three days isolation in a hotel for the Bledisloe Cup, it provided a ray of hope for other sports.

There would be no chance of expecting international tennis players to spend 14 days in an isolation facility before playing at the Classic, but Budge says three days is workable.

‘‘We could make a three-day quarantine work for sure,’’ Budge said. ‘‘We’re working through that scenario now.’’

Budge is looking at an option where players could stay inside their bubble and not have contact with anyone else.

‘‘If they do a three-day quarantine, make sure they stay in their bubble for two weeks, there’s a chance they never leave their bubble in New Zealand,’’ he said.

‘‘We can manage it easily on site, we wouldn’t do any food onsite, use the onsite gym or training facilities and everything would be done back at the hotel.

‘‘We could have a scenario where we only have six players onsite at any given time and we can make it so they never get close to the public.

‘‘We’d have no ball kids, players would have their own balls, so they wouldn’t have to swap them.’’

Budge will need to convince government officials to make this happen, while he also needs to know what restrictions there would be for players once they cross the Tasman for the Australian Open.