The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Organisers confident Australian Open will start despite virus case
Australian Open organisers remain confident of starting the grand slam tennis tournament on schedule on Monday.
No matches in the six warm-up events being held at Melbourne Park were played yesterday after an employee at one of the hotels used for the two weeks of quarantine tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday.
More than 500 players and support staff deemed casual contacts are having to isolate until they receive a negative test but all the matches scheduled for yesterday have been moved to today, where forecast rain presents another headache.
Tournament director Craig Tiley told a press conference: “This does give us three days for the lead-in events to complete. Obviously tomorrow we’ve got some challenging weather, so we’ve got to work around that as well, and the intention is to start the Australian Open on Monday.
“We’re absolutely confident the Australian Open’s going to go ahead. We know we’ve got a period now we’ve got to work through with those players and their staff that needed tests.
“The probability is very low that there’s going to be any issue, we fully expect them all to test negative.
“If we have to go through this again, we’ll go through this again. We’ve got another three and a half weeks of tennis and fully expect to keep to the original schedule once we get past today.”
It is not known how the man who tested positive caught the virus, and this incident, which has meant restrictions have been reinstated for all Melburnians, will add fuel to the fire of those who believe the tournament should not have taken place.
Wimbledon organisers are focusing their efforts on planning for a reduced number of fans to attend this summer’s tournament.
The All England Club is committed to staging the championships, having cancelled the tournament last year for the first time since the Second World War because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Three scenarios previously announced of a tournament held behind closed doors, one with a full complement of fans and one with a reduced capacity are all still on the table, but the latter is the most likely.
What organisers are keen to avoid is the scenario the French Open found itself in last year when, having sold tickets based on hopes of having 50-60% of full capacity, the tournament was eventually played in front of only 1,000 spectators per day.