Australian Open 2022: Tennis stars Borna Coric and Denis Shapovalov the first players to land in the country

The Tennis Australia-organised charter flights for incoming tennis stars won’t arrive until next week, but some players are already here.

Canada's Denis Shapovalov is among the first international tennis stars to arrive in Australia. Picture: AFP

International tennis stars are already arriving in Australia ahead of the first charter flights of players and support staff next week.

Croatia’s former world No.12 Borna Coric is believed to have been the first player to land in the country, while Canadian sensation Denis Shapovalov touched down on Thursday.

Coric hasn’t played since undergoing shoulder surgery in May, while Shapovalov competed at this month’s Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, where he defeated Rafael Nadal.

Shapovalov, who is ranked 14th in the world, is playing in the ATP Cup in Sydney, with Canada’s campaign starting against the United States on January 2.

Top-10 stars Nadal and Ons Jabeur and Olympic champion Belinda Bencic all played in the Abu Dhabi exhibition event and tested positive for Covid-19 – but Shapovalov avoided that fate.

Australian Open rules state that all players and support staff must return a negative PCR test in the 72 hours before flying to Melbourne or Sydney.

They must also be tested on arrival and go into isolation until a negative result is confirmed, proof of which will be required to receive tournament accreditation.

Croatia's Borna Coric is set to make his long-awaited return from shoulder surgery in Australia. Picture: AFP

Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley said all players competing in Melbourne would stay at Crown accommodation.

“This will be one of, if not the safest place to be in the world in January, because of that rigorous process everyone has been through to get here on the precinct,” Tiley said.

“All the players are staying in the same accommodation, so we have a minimised risk environment at the Crown and they’ll be staying there as a group.

“There will be testing on site, we’ll be managing their movements and they get straight into the cars.

“So in 2021, we were about protecting the community from the players, who were coming from environments that were ravaged with the virus and we didn’t have it.

“In 2022, it’s about keeping the players and our patrons on site from not getting Omicron or any variant of the virus.”

Romania’s Simona Halep is due to arrive in Australia on Monday ahead of the summer of tennis. Picture: AFP

Simona Halep and top-10 men Matteo Berrettini – Australian player Ajla Tomljanovic’s boyfriend – and Casper Ruud are set to arrive on Monday, before the first of the charter flights on Tuesday.

Some players and their support staff may not fly in until January if they are competing in only the Australian Open and none of the lead-in events.

Tiley said co-ordinating this year’s events was “10 times harder” than the stressful and complicated 2021 edition.

“We brought in only 1000 people in 2021 and we’re bringing in 3300 players and their staff (this time around),” he said.

“We have qualifying (which was held overseas this year), juniors and wheelchair, so this has been more difficult.

“But this is a Melbourne, a Victorian, an Australian effort. We want to bring Australia back in a big way and … hopefully in January we can feel really proud, as Australians, on all being vaccinated.”

Originally published as Australian Open 2022: Tennis stars Borna Coric and Denis Shapovalov the first players to land in the country