Tiley certain aussie open will go ahead

MELBOURNE • The Australian Open will begin as scheduled on Monday even though a worker at one of the Melbourne hotels used to quarantine players and their entourages tested positive for Covid-19, tournament director Craig Tiley said yesterday.

Yesterday's warm-up matches at Melbourne Park were called off after the case was announced late on Wednesday, and those who underwent quarantine at the Grand Hyatt hotel in the Victorian capital were instructed to get tested and isolate until they had a result.

"We're absolutely confident the Australian Open will go ahead," said Tiley, who confirmed that 160 of the 507 people affected were players.

Tests were completed yesterday and as long as results are negative, the players will be free to participate in the six warm-up events at the venue of the Grand Slam to allow them to get some match practice after 14 days in quarantine.

"This does give us three days for the lead-in events to be completed," Tiley said, adding that the draw for the Grand Slam tournament had been postponed from yesterday to today.

Earlier, Victoria state health officials said the testing of the tennis cohort was precautionary.

"We think the risk to other guests in the hotel - tennis players and their accompanying staff - is relatively low," deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng said.

State Premier Dan Andrews, who has made it clear the safety of the community is paramount, added that "the tennis shouldn't be impacted by this" but conceded "these things can change".

Victoria opposition leader Michael O'Brien called on the government to make a call by tomorrow on whether the tournament would go ahead following the first locally transmitted case in 28 days.

"We don't want to see a situation as we did with the (Australian) Grand Prix, where crowds were literally turning up, only to be turned away," he told the Herald Sun newspaper. "I think people are entitled to know what's happening, and the government should be making their minds up in the next 24 to 48 hours."

Warm-up events for the Australian Open to resume today.

However, Tiley rejected the comparison with last March's ill-fated Formula One season-opening race.

"The probability is very low that there'll be an issue. We expect them all to test negative," he said. "The plan is to continue to play tomorrow as planned."

But because of the logjam in matches, which have to be completed in time for Sunday's finals, women will play shorter matches at the tune-up events.

"All WTA singles matches from Friday on will be a best of two regular tiebreak sets with a 10-point match tiebreak if required for a final set," organisers Tennis Australia said of the fixtures released for today's order of play.

The men's tournaments, including the truncated 12-team ATP Cup, will continue to use the existing best-of-three sets format, with a tiebreak at 6-6 in the final set.

However, Rafael Nadal will not make his first appearance for Spain at the ATP Cup today. The world No. 2 pulled out of the opening tie against Australia on Tuesday with a lower back problem and later revealed he was still struggling with his fitness.

"It's not that I'm in a really bad way, but I'm also not alright in the sense that I can't play either," the 20-time Slam champion told TV network Movistar Plus.

REUTERS

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