‘Melbourne’ summer of tennis possible as Tennis Australia scrambling for approval


‘Melbourne’ summer of tennis possible as Tennis Australia scrambling for approval
The Australian Open is set to begin in January 2021

All the tournaments scheduled in the Australian summer of 2021 could be played at Melbourne if Tennis Australia’s plans don’t materialize.

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Tennis Australia has been working tirelessly to get their quarantine plans approved with the government. However, they are also exploring the option of holding all tournaments in one city. And with tickets for the Australian Open set to go on sale from November 26, time is fast running out.

Craig Tiley, the chief of Tennis Australia, spoke to The Age, an Australian daily, about the dicey situation.

Next week is D-Day for taking a call on schedule

The Serbian team celebrating after winning the inaugural edition of the ATP Cup – a multi-city event

Tennis Australia normally plans for multi-city events in the runup to the Australian Open, with Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, and a few other places hosting ATP tournaments. The organization has been in touch with state governments to create quarantine plans for international players. They are also yet to take a call on the multi-city format, having the Melbourne option as a backup.

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Tiley said, “To have those multi-city events, we would need two things. We would need a quarantine plan that gets approved by each state. The second one is we would need a commitment from governments that there can be free travel from state to state. You never know, we may be in the unfortunate position that there’s a sudden infection spike of 100 people in January. And the other cities will shut down travel and we’ll have players stuck there.”

Tennis Australia has also been negotiating with the governments to create “controlled bubbles”. This system would allow quarantined international players to go to practice courts without breaking quarantine.

“The two-week controlled bubble will be a very strict environment,” Tiley said. “The objectives will be to protect the community. So the players, while they’re training, will only go from their hotel room to the courts, and then back to the hotel room in a secure protected environment,” he added.

He further added on the proposed bubble, stating that, “There will obviously be significant testing in that bubble. Our objective will be to make it the safest and securest bubble anywhere in the world. Then after two weeks, the players can come out and they become members of the community because they’re negative and they’re not carriers of COVID.”

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ATP Cup players should arrive by mid-December

A picturesque view of the Rod Laver Arena, home of the Australian Open in Melbourne

Tiley talked about the players competing in the ATP Cup, saying that they will need to reach Australia considerably early to clear the quarantine in time. Even those who choose to participate in Adelaide, Canberra, and Hobart would need to arrive early.

“Players will come in the middle of December and it will be two weeks [of quarantine] before the summer, and then they’ll have four-five weeks of being able to play tennis at Melbourne if it’s all the events … if not it will be events in other cities and then the Australian Open,” Tiley added.

The chief also claimed that officials had looked into allowing players to play sanctioned events while in quarantine. However, the government hasn’t approved those plans, and Tiley isn’t thinking much about them.

All of Top 100 have filled travel commitment forms

The 2019 US Open women’s singles champion, Bianca Andreescu, will make a comeback at the Australian Open next year

Many of the world’s top players, including Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Bianca Andresscu have already pledged to make a comeback at the Australian Open.

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Craig Tiley talked about all of the Top 100 players, regardless of gender, have filled special forms.

He said, “Everyone had to complete a travel commitment form and that is a precursor to getting visas. All of the top 100 men and women have completed that. Everyone has indicated a desire to travel.”

When asked about the prospect of the 2021 Australian Open being scrapped, Tiley denied it. They plan on populating the audience at a 25% capacity, something similar to the cricket plans. However, tennis is a unique sport, with specific cities hosting tournaments.

Calling tennis scheduling a “challenge”, he said, “If there was an outbreak in Brisbane or Melbourne, they could keep the whole cricket season in New South Wales. The Australian Open is in Melbourne. So everyone has to get to Melbourne at some point. So we’re much more restricted than the other sports.”

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Also Read: Roger, Rafa, Djokovic and Serena commit to play 2021 Australian Open