Tennis stars stringing us along
Michael Venus is in danger of missing out on the Australian Open because of new border restrictions brought in by the Australian government.
New Zealand’s top doubles player has spent the summer in Auckland and was due to fly to Melbourne on Saturday.
However, if the Australian government’s 72-hour halt on allowing Kiwis to travel across the Tasman without going into isolation is extended, Venus will be forced to miss the first grand slam of the year.
Venus’s plans were thrown into disarray when a woman tested positive for coronavirus in Northland, which resulted in the oneway travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia being suspended on Monday night.
‘‘I’m waiting to see what happens over the 72 hours and hopefully no more cases in New Zealand,’’ Venus told Stuff.
The Australian Open begins on February 8, so there is not enough time left for Venus to do the two weeks in quarantine.
‘‘It’s not possible to go now,’’ the former French Open doubles winner said. ‘‘It’s too close to the tournament to quarantine for 14 days. So we just have to hope that it’s going to be OK. But it’s out of my hands really, I’ve just got to play a waiting game.’’
Venus found out the news on Monday night and said he had been in touch with officials about his situation.
‘‘I’ve spoken to the ATP and they’ve reiterated the same things,’’ he said.
‘‘I’ve also spoken to Tennis Australia, who have a contact who’s been working on things for them with quarantining and basically they’ve said they haven’t got any information and I have to wait and see.
‘‘It’s either I’ll be able to travel there without quarantining or if I have to quarantine, I’m going to miss the tournament.’’
Venus went through a similar quarantine issue late last year, where it looked like he faced a choice between playing the ATP finals in London or not being able to come down under in time to prepare for the Australian Open.
However, that time he got lucky and managed to get a spot which became available in a managed isolation facility.
‘‘With a pandemic you don’t know what’s going to happen next. I thought I was pretty safe in being here, then going to Australia,’’ he said. ‘‘We haven’t had any community cases for so long and if this happened next week there wouldn’t have been any dramas, but this is how these things sometimes happen and I’ve got to roll with it.’’
If Venus is able to travel to Melbourne on Saturday, he plans to team up with fellow Kiwi Marcus Daniell for a warm up ATP tournament that starts next week, which would be good preparations for the Olympic Games, if they go ahead.
It’s unknown what will be played this year on the professional tennis circuit as countries continue to battle the global pandemic, but for the first part of 2021 at least, there are expected to be plenty more cancelled tournaments.
‘‘I would like to think that it will be back to normal [in 2021], but the signs are that at least for the next few months, I don’t see how it’s going to run like a regular season,’’ Venus said.
‘‘It’s going to be all over the place, like it was last year. We’ll have to see how things play out in each country and do what the ATP puts on and what they think is safe.’’