Tennis Australia doubts on player coronavirus positives

Tennis Australia suggests two players who tested positive to COVID-19 had been viral shedding.

Ash Barty on Tuesday. Picture: Alex Coppel

Tennis Australia has queried whether two Australian Open tennis players have tested positive to COVID-19, suggesting they had been viral shedding and were not active cases.

The query came after Victorian health authorities on Tuesday said two Australian Open tennis players and a non-playing participant were among four positive coronavirus cases in Victorian hotel quarantine on Tuesday.

Two previously notified cases were reclassified as negative because of prior infection, bringing the total number of cases associated with the tournament to seven.

But during a briefing with journalists later on Tuesday, Australian Open chief executive Craig Tiley said the cases related to viral shedding.

“Of those six [cases in the Australian Open contingent], plus one — which was the flight attendant — none of them are players. (It’s) player entourages,” he said.

The dispute over the number of coronavirus cases came as Australian Open organisers considered delaying lead-in events to allow players in strict quarantine an opportunity to train before competing in the first week of February.

Mr Tiley confirmed on Tuesday there was a prospect the size of the main draws for what would be a remarkable lead-in to the Australian Open could be reduced as well.

Some of the 72 players who are in strict quarantine have said they were not prepared to risk injury by competing immediately after exiting their hotel rooms next weekend. As a result, it is possible the draw sizes for the opening week of tournaments will be reduced.

Mr Tiley, who acknowledged it was likely there would be “a few more bumps in the road” ahead of the Australian Open, said others would see the tournaments as an opportunity to gain match play.

More than 70 players and their entour­ages remained in hard lockdown on Tuesday, unable to leave their hotel rooms for training after they arrived on three flights containing people who have since tested positive for the virus.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the latest positive cases linked to the Australian Open included a woman in her 20s and two men in their 30s.

The identity of the players in question was not clear late on Tuesday. DHHS has a policy of not naming players who test positive, leaving it up to them to make the information public. “Further investigations are ongoing to determine any other cases of prior infection which can be safely reclassified,” the department said.

Those who have the virus may still be able to compete, if they clear the virus and complete 14 days in quarantine before the tournament opens on February 8.

Of Victoria’s 34 active coronavirus cases on Tuesday, 31 were in travellers in hotel quarantine — including the seven linked to the tennis — while the remaining three were locally acquired cases linked to the Black Rock cluster.

The latest cases came amid pressure on the Andrews government over its decision to quarantine more than 1200 people linked to the tennis, at a time when tens of thousands of Australians are stranded overseas and unable to return home due to national cabinet’s cap on international arrivals.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday refused to say whose advice he was acting on when he concluded that Melbourne would be at risk of losing the Australian Open as a grand slam event if it did not proceed because of coronavirus this year.

Asked whether it was appropriate to be “importing coronavirus cases on a daily basis for the sake of a tennis tournament”, Mr Andrews said: “We import corona­virus cases every day. Our borders are open to returning Australians, and in a very tight quarantine system, we’re having a major event that if we don’t have it, well, somebody else will.”