The Australian Open is expected to start on Monday, February 8, three weeks later than planned. This is evident from a letter that tournament director Craig Tiley sent to the tennis players, the Australian newspapers The Age and Sydney Morning Herald report.
“It took a while. But the good news is that it looks like we can host the Australian Open on February 8,” Tiley said in the letter. Players are scheduled to arrive in Australia between January 15 and 17 and then go into quarantine for two weeks.
It is an adapted form of quarantine because they are allowed to leave their hotel for a maximum of five hours a day to train. All players, supervisors and those involved are tested several times for the coronavirus.
Australia has weathered the corona pandemic quite well. The fear that the tennis players and their entourage would take the virus with them was relatively high in the country. The government in the state of Victoria, of which the playing city Melbourne is a part, had therefore called for a postponement and stringent hygiene conditions.
Postponement to February 8 also has consequences for the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, which is scheduled for February 6 to 14. “At the moment it is the wish of the Australian Open that has been communicated.
The ATP (the tournaments and the players) have not yet given a definitive response to this. We do not want to get ahead of that, but assume that we will find a good solution”, said tournament director Richard Krajicek.