MELBOURNE • Preparations for the Australian Open continued to be thrown into disarray yesterday after more players were forced into hard quarantine, while furore erupted over favouritism shown to athletes as well as the unequal treatment of participating stars.

Officials yesterday confirmed that four additional participants, including a tennis player, had tested positive for Covid-19 among those arriving in Melbourne, bringing the number of players who will not be able to leave their hotel rooms during their two-week quarantine to a reported 72.

Health authorities in Victoria state have now reported nine infections among passengers who arrived on charter flights for the Feb 8-21 Open and officials have said more cases may come to light as testing continues this week.

"All four are associated with the tennis, and they're all tucked away safely in hotel quarantine," Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews told reporters of the new cases.

The growing infection count and the fact that tens of thousands of Australians remain stranded overseas has sparked calls from pundits to cancel the first Grand Slam of the year.

"It's time to be selfish, time for Victoria to put ourselves first," 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell said. "Call off the Australian Open. It's not worth the risk."

DISGRUNTLED AUSSIES

Since March, Australia has all but closed its borders to international arrivals. While citizens and permanent residents can return home, authorities have a strict quota on how many people can fly back so as not to overwhelm the quarantine system, with all returnees required to self-isolate in hotels or designated facilities.

According to the Wall Street Journal, almost 40,000 legal residents remain on the waiting list and the wait is growing as the government has halved the number of people who can return to the country each week as positive coronavirus cases in hotel quarantine rise.

Emirates has indefinitely suspended flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, yet 1,200 tennis players and their entourages are in Australia for the hard-court Major, and anger is growing.

"If you want to come to Australia during a pandemic you have to be a sports star, movie celebrity or a billionaire media tycoon," netizen Daniel Bleakley tweeted, using the hashtag #strandedAussies. "Citizenship and an Australian passport alone are not enough."

Political observers have also questioned that the funds being used to host the tournament could have been diverted to boost hotel quarantine facilities and the healthcare system to help bring back Australians stuck overseas.

The opposition leader in Victoria's state parliament, Mr Tim Smith, has accused Mr Andrews of double standards, urging him to "bring the Victorians home or cancel the Open".

However, state officials insist there has been no bias, with Dr Brett Sutton, Victoria's chief medical officer, saying: "No one has been set aside coming from other jurisdictions by virtue of the Australian Open going ahead. They are separate decisions that are made upon their own merits."

LESS-THAN-IDEAL CONDITIONS

In line with arrangements made by organisers Tennis Australia with health authorities, players, excluding those on board the identified flights with positive cases, are allowed five hours outside their hotel rooms each day to train.

Players have been posting complaints on social media about how bad the conditions are like in Melbourne.

A mouse was spotted in a room, while the food has been described as "s***", with Spain's world No. 15 Pablo Carreno Busta expressing his disbelief on Instagram with an emoji and a "really?" caption after being served a salad, a cup of juice and an apple for lunch.

The conditions are even more stifling for those who cannot leave their rooms to practise, although concessions have been made with the use of food delivery services like UberEats allowed.

Players like women's world No. 12 Belinda Bencic have claimed they were under the impression that only those seated in the near vicinity of a positive case would be subject to a hard quarantine, and not the entire flight.

"Actually, no we didn't (know what we signed up for), we made our decision to come here from rules that were sent to us. Then we arrived and received an information/rule book with more/new rules that we did not know about," the Swiss tweeted.

But Mr Andrews has refuted those claims, saying: "The notion that there's been any change, the notion that people weren't briefed, I think that argument really has no integrity whatsoever."

DOUBLE STANDARDS

There also appears to be a stark difference between players quarantining in Victoria and those quarantining in the South Australia state.

A handful of players, including tennis' elite like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem - the men's top three players - and Ashleigh Barty, Simona Halep and Naomi Osaka - the women's top three players - as well as 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams are not in Melbourne.

Instead, they have been allowed to serve their quarantine in Adelaide as they are taking part in an exhibition thereafter and unlike their peers, the conditions are said to be much better, causing consternation.

Osaka was forced to delete a photo showing her on a court with four support staff after being criticised on social media and other players are said to be "in revolt" at the difference in treatment.

World No. 42 doubles player Philipp Oswald revealed to tennisnet.com the double standards, saying: "First, players were allowed to take a lot more staff with them.

"(Daniil) Medvedev and (Alexander) Zverev, for example, were only allowed to take two people with them (to Melbourne), while Thiem, Nadal and Djokovic each came with 10 people (to Adelaide).

"They also have a gym in their hotel. So they don't have to do their fitness exercises during the five-hour period. You only have the five hours to play tennis. There was a huge discussion and the other players were also upset."

BACKLASH

Djokovic, who is said to be aware of the unhappiness, has since requested that Open organisers ease quarantine restrictions for players.

A Spanish tennis website reported that the Serb wrote to Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley with a list of "demands", asking for reduced isolation periods, contact with trainers and coaches, better food and having players moved from hotels to "private houses with tennis courts".

Djokovic's requests, however, have not been received warmly Down Under, with world No. 47 Nick Kyrgios calling him "a tool".

In response, Mr Andrews also knocked back any possibility that the rules may be relaxed, adding: "There's no special treatment here. Because the virus doesn't treat you specially, so neither do we."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS