Tennis: Australian Open may be scrapped if players can’t train in quarantine

The Australian Open is in danger of being scrapped unless Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews allows overseas players to train in quarantine.

The sun sets over last year’s Australian Open men’s final between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Rafael Nadal of Spain. Picture: Getty Images

The Australian Open will be scrapped unless overseas players can train while in quarantine in Melbourne.

That’s the word in the clubhouse after the Victorian Government’s refusal to allow the world’s most famous and potentially infectious players to enter Melbourne in December.

At best, Tennis Australia is being forced to consider staging next year’s Open without a solitary warm-up event. Even now that players cannot arrive until January, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has given no guarantee they will be allowed to practice while in their two-week quarantine.

Under that scenario, it’s unlikely superstars such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams will come at all. Which will be game, set match, thank you ball kids, thank you linesmen for the Open.

“Worst-case scenario is no AO,” TA boss Craig Tiley said when Covid-19 first started decimating world sport, and nothing much has changed.

TA said in a statement to News Corp on Wednesday night: “Tennis Australia continues to work closely with the Victorian Government on staging the Australian Open. The health and safety of the community. the players and all involved in the event, has always been our top priority, and we recognise the incredible effort and the sacrifices all Victorians have made to contain Covid-19.”

It seems January 18 or bust for the start of the tournament. Rescheduling for later in the year is majorly complicated because of the crammed ATP Tour calendar.

If the Open is moved to March, for instance, all the tournaments normally played then will need to be moved, too. The Open’s vast broadcast audience in Australia will be slashed in AFL season.

The Open’s huge attendances every year are due partly to the tournament being held in the school holidays. But now players are barred from entry until January, they will only quarantine if they can get on practice courts. Lleyton Hewitt used to yell at himself, “Come on, Rusty!” They may all be doing the same come January. Rusty, and then some.

Andrews knocked back a request from TA for more than 2000 players and support staff to land in Melbourne in mid-December, serve two weeks in quarantine and then be free for a fortnight of Melbourne-based tournaments in January before the Open begins.

Now if a player arrives on New Year’s Day, he or she will have to quarantine until just four days before the first balls are struck. It’s an impossible situation for all concerned. Andrews cannot risk another hotel quarantine-style fiasco. The fear is legitimate that the tennis mob, coming from all corners of the globe, including countries still up to their eyeballs in Covid-19 infections, will start another cluster that sends Melbourne back into lockdown. TA CEO Craig Tiley, already bracing for a $33m biosecurity bill, wants to do everything in his power to make the Open happen, not the least because it generates 90 per cent of the governing body’s annual revenue, but he understands government gets the final word.

Andrews, for now, seems willing to allow mass overseas arrivals in time for their quarantine to end ahead of the Open – but not sooner.

Overseas ATP players have been told in a group email of “some new challenges around the previously planned arrival dates for players and team members”. In other words, expect to have Christmas at home.

Andrews said on Wednesday he wanted the Open to go ahead but said “there’s a lot of work to be done to make sure that that’s as safe as possible". He rejected suggestions that quarantine conditions were a "done deal,” describing the situation as “incredibly complex” and “a massive task.”

Twenty-time major champion Rafael Nadal said during this week’s ATP Finals in London, “The only negative thing is we have to be there like 16 days in advance (of the Open).”

He said he would cop that sweet … if he had access to training facilities during quarantine. So far, Andrews has given no such guarantee.

Respected commentator Paul Annacone told the US-based Tennis Channel after speaking to Tiley, “It’s on pause at the moment. The average daily rate of infection in Melbourne for the last 14 days is zero. They (the government) don’t want to jeopardise that. They’re working with Tennis Australia to work out what can be done, when, why and how.”

Former Open champion Jim Courier, the bloke who does most of the on-court interviews at Melbourne Park, said: “The prior plan was that players were going to arrive mid-December so they could quarantine for 14 days in a couple of hotels in Melbourne. That has shifted again today. The players are now definitely not arriving in December.

“Lots of things are up in the air. Spare a thought for Tennis Australia. I cannot imagine that Craig and his team, who are so respected and liked, are getting any sleep at all. Obviously you’ve got to follow the rules from the government and try to thread the needle.”