Australian Open 2021 - Nine active cases of coronavirus in quarantine, tournament officials confirm
ByReuters
Updated 24/01/2021 at 10:43 GMT
The tournament is slated to get underway at Melbourne Park on February 8. Andy Murray was the highest-profile name to withdraw from the first major championship og the year after he tested positive for coronavirus and the Scot and officials confirmed there was no way he could make it safely to the Australian Open
Craig Tiley lors de la présentation de l'Open d'Australie 2020 à Melbourne
Image credit: Getty Images
One case of Covid-19 among those in quarantine ahead of the Australian Open has been reclassified, local health officials said on Sunday, leaving nine active cases in the group of players and support staff isolating in Melbourne hotels.
Health officials previously said they were investigating some positive tests for evidence of "viral shedding", where people who have had the virus continue to shed non-infectious remnants after they have recovered.
Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria also said in a statement that the one case of the virus acquired overseas reported on Sunday was not connected to the tennis Grand Slam.
Most of the 970 people in the Australian Open quarantine hotels have entered their second week of the 14-day isolation period with the first arrivals due to be freed from lockdown on Friday.
While most have been allowed out to train for five hours a day, around 72 have been confined to their rooms after the positive cases on the charter flights that brought them to Australia.
Four players were among the cases initially reported as being associated with the tennis but only Spain's Paula Badosa has confirmed that she tested positive.
Badosa's quarantine period restarted when the test result was confirmed, meaning the 23-year-old will have almost no time to prepare for the February 8 start of the Australian Open.
There was bad news for another player in quarantine early on Sunday when the International Tennis Federation denied Dayana Yastremska's application to have her provisional suspension for a doping violation set aside.
The Ukrainian world number 29, who denied using performance-enhancing substances when her positive test for an anabolic agent was revealed in January, has the right to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The organisers announced on Sunday a new women's competition from February 3-7 to aid the preparations of players in hard lockdown.
"These changes to the lead-in events have been made to give the 72 players a little bit of extra time to help them prepare," tournament director Craig Tiley said in a statement.
"We also will prioritise them for things like practice sessions, gym and ice baths."
The Chief Executive of the women's WTA Tour, Steve Simon, welcomed the revamped build-up.
"This revised schedule comprised of three WTA 500 events ... will allow for our athletes coming out of the respected quarantine period to properly focus on their preparation in a return to competition," Simon said.
Three of the nine cases of Covid-19 linked to the Australian Open were on Saturday revealed to be for the more transmissible coronavirus variant first detected in the United Kingdom.
According to local media, that news scuppered plans to allow the players to associate in groups of up to four, rather that the current two.
Tournament director Craig Tiley told players in a letter on Saturday evening that the environment was not conducive to an easing of restrictions, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.
"After consultation with many of you, we have postponed the planned expansion of the cohorts," Tiley wrote.
Having more people in your cohort is no extra risk to the local community, because you are all in quarantine. But we want to minimise the risk to each of you and that's why we have delayed the expansion and will continue to assess daily."
A rash of complaints from frustrated players on social media in the first few days of lockdown have calmed after some of their fellow competitors urged them to show respect for the efforts the people of Melbourne had made to control the virus.
The state of Victoria, which contains Australia's second-largest city, endured one of the world's strictest and longest lockdowns last year.
On Sunday the state recorded an 18th straight day with no local transmissions, while Australia as a whole has not reported a case in the community for nine of the last 10 days.
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