Australian Open: Pat Cash smashes health officials over delay in informing tennis stars
The Wimbledon champ launches a serve after players weren’t alerted until hours after Daniel Andrews revealed the latest COVID-19 scare.
Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has launched a serve at health authorities after players and officials who quarantined at the Grand Hyatt hotel were not alerted to their predicament until hours after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews revealed the latest COVID-19 scare in Melbourne.
Cash, whose protege Qiang Wang upset Serena Williams in Melbourne last year and defeated Ash Barty in New York in 2019, said there was significant confusion among those who stayed at the Grand Hyatt, where a worker has tested positive. He says authorities should have been proactive in contacting the 507 players, coaches and officials involved.
“It is absolutely mind-boggling,” Cash said. “It is the way it is but it would have been sensible … to contact the players so that if they were out at dinner, or hanging out with friends or other people, they could have gone back to their hotel rooms immediately.
“If the Premier knew at 10 o’clock and they were really concerned about it, they should have put the alert out.”
The threat to the tournament comes as thousands of contacts linked to the Australian Open quarantine hotel worker have been forced to isolate and 300,000 residents in suburbs visited by the man received text messages from health authorities putting them on red alert.
The 26-year-old initially returned a negative coronavirus test when he completed his final shift last Friday, seven days after coronavirus-positive Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa and her coach departed the hotel on January 22. He developed symptoms early this week and returned a positive test on Wednesday.
Tour officials cancelled play for the six tournaments under way at Melbourne Park early on Thursday and delayed the official draw ceremony for the Australian Open until Friday pending test results.
Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley is confident the Australian Open will begin as expected on Monday, provided all results are negative. Should a player test positive, they will be withdrawn from the tournament. “There is no such thing as no risk. The objective around that is to reduce it as much as possible,” Mr Tiley said.
Dual Australian Open champion Jim Courier, who was tested on Wednesday, said the situation had given him “great concern, great pause”.
“I think we all thought that we were past the risk zone, but that has reopened that zone for us,” he told The Tennis Channel.
It is understood half of those tested were cleared by 6pm (AEDT) on Thursday, clearing them to practice. Based on health advice, Tennis Australia rated the chances of anyone affiliated with the event testing positive as extremely low.
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