Let’s not let Ash Barty off the hook

World No 1 Ash Barty, without a mask, after a training session in Melbourne Picture: Alex Coppel.

Let’s line them up in a row, the list of precocious, entitled tennis stars who have failed to read the room: Novak Djokovic, Alize Cornet, Bernard Tomic (plus his girlfriend Vanessa Sierra), Roberto Bautista Agut, Paula Badosa (plus the Royal Tennis Association of Spain) and, wait for it, Ash Barty.

Yes, that’s right, Australia’s favourite tennis star — maybe our favourite sports star — the Richmond fan with the cheeky grin who conquered the world, has stumbled into bad-look territory. And we shouldn’t let her off the hook just because she is one of ours.

Barty was sprung by a Sky news reporter buying watermelon in a Melbourne supermarket without a mask, in clear contravention of Victorian rules. This looked particularly bad coming just a few days after Barty — squeaky clean Barty — had had a crack at some of her international rivals complaining about the Australian Open quarantine requirements, saying the protocols were about “keeping Melburnians safe” and “making sure we put health first has to be the priority”.

Barty was quick to apologise and put it all down to an innocent mistake. “I will be better next time,” she said.

But Cornet apologised for calling the tennis lockdown “insane” and even Roberto Bautista Agut said sorry for describing his quarantine hotel as “like prison, but with Wi-Fi”.

Barty’s blunder is no worse, but also no better, than Djokovic’s ham-fisted demands for a better deal for quarantined players or Tomic’s moaning about the standard of the food in his hotel. Although Sierra’s outrage over having to wash her own hair probably takes the cake.

And then there’s Spanish player Badosa, who whinged about having to go into hard lockdown, only to become the first player to test positive. She’s shut away for another week, despite the Spanish tennis association’s complaints about her treatment.

Meanwhile, Barty is contemplating her next trip to Woolworths — this time, hopefully, wearing a mask.

McGregor has a swing

Irish UFC brawler Conor McGregor probably doesn’t know much about the Australian Open lockdown, but he reckons he knows enough to tell the players to stop complaining.

“There’s a lot going on and a lot at risk. It’s everyone’s duty on this earth to do what they can,” McGregor said while promoting this weekend’s UFC 257 at Abu Dhabi’s Fight Island, where he’ll consider it his duty to give Dustin Poitier a whopping.

“I’m actually surprised to hear that the tennis players are kicking up. We’ve gotta correct ourselves. To get to compete in such a prestigious tennis tournament — or any tournament — a two-week lockdown prior, you should welcome it with open arms. I know I would. Get your act together and be happy you get to compete.”

McGregor has good form in this area for a supposedly selfish thug. He’s used social media to encourage fans to wear masks and be socially distant. And he’s donated more than $1.5m worth of medical supplies and protective equipment to hospitals in Ireland.

That said, he isn’t doing it too tough at Abu Dhabi, judging by his coach John Kavanagh’s post-fight plans: “Myself and Conor kind of joked the part you look forward to … is that the fight will be over, we’ll be back on the super yacht, we’ll be heading to Dubai …”

A little less luxury for Australian motorcycle ace Toby Price, still languishing in a Saudi Arabian hospital after crashing out of the Dakar Rally. Price posted an image of his slightly less than appetising hospital dinner on social media on Friday, with the note: “Wonder if the tennis players would eat this?” Djokovic and Tomic, tucking into three meals a day from their five-star hotel kitchens, should take note. “I’m not complaining,” Price added.

Appealing to all ages

Greg Johnson, the president of Veterans Cricket Victoria, doesn’t take himself too seriously. They hand out “little blue tablets” as man of the match awards at veterans games, Johnson told the Seven Network’s Front Bar the other day.

But he does have one serious problem — enough players over 80 to make a team, but not enough for two. So who do they play?

“You might be surprised that in Victoria we’ve actually got 15 registered players over 80,” Johnson said on RSN the other day. “Trouble is we haven’t got anyone for them to play against.”

The answer, of course, is for the octogenarians to drop down an age group and play with the over-70s, where there are plenty of ageless cricketers.

“You’d probably describe us as slow medium,” says Johnson, who plays in the over-70s himself.

“In the over-70s we have round about 200 players, over-60s about 400 and over-50s about 800,” he says. “And we’ve just started a women’s team — our first women’s veterans team played last year. They’re over 40.”

The veterans play under slightly modified rules to cater for the fact that their minds may be willing but their bodies are a bit off the pace.

“Generally the boundary is in at about 55m — we don’t want our blokes sliding into the fence when they’re fielding,” says Johnson. “We generally play 40 overs a team in our normal Sunday competition. Batsmen retire when they reach 40 and a maximum of eight overs a bowler.

“While we’re still 21 in our heads and also very competitive, we’re also conscious of ensuring the participation or all our players who want to get a bat or want to get a bowl. They love being on the ground and the lunch breaks and after the games where we all try to outdo each other with stories of our past glories.”

So if you are over 80 and can still hold a bat, Johnson would no doubt be happy to hear from you via the association’s website, veteranscricketvictoria.org.au.

Long-range shots

Australia’s Olympic shooting team, starved of international competition by COVID-19, has found a novel way of competing on the world stage. Shooting is going online in something they are calling a Postal Shoot.

The four members of the pistol team — Dan Repacholi, Sergei Evglevski, Elena Galiabovitch and Dina Aspandiyarova — are taking part in a four-week training camp at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre.

But on Saturday they will compete live against a team of Olympic shooters from Singapore. The Australian Olympians will shoot their event under the direction of local range officers while, simultaneously, the Singaporeans shoot with their officers supervising. And both sides get to see the others in action via Skype.

It will all be familiar territory for Aspandiyarova, from Ormeau on the Gold Coast, who in her day job coaches shooters from all over the world, some of them via Skype.

BC’s tip of the week

Away Game, who carried BC’s cash in the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas last week, was galloped on and lost skin off a hind leg. Finished a brave third, says BC.

This week, his focus switches to Sandown, where he likes the look of Quantum Mechanic in the Ladbrokes Easy Form Handicap — No 2 in Race 5.

The word out of Warrnambool, where she is trained, is that the mare dazzled in a gallop on Tuesday. She has shortened from $2.80 to $2.50 since markets opened.