BEVERLY HILLS, January 18, (THEWILL) – On Monday, as the news made the rounds that tennis world number one player, Novak Djokovic, had demanded for an ease of lockdown restrictions for players preparing for the tennis season opener, the Australian Open, Daniel Michael Andrews, the Premier of Victoria (whose capital is Melbourne) came out and bluntly rejected that possibility.
Just as the number of Australian Open competitors in quarantine reached 72, Premier Andrews announced on Monday another four positive COVID-19 cases in Melbourne, all of which were directly linked to charter flights of tennis players and their entourage coming into the country ahead of the Open Down Under.
These new set of four cases brings the total number of confirmed cases to nine, including one unnamed player, who had arrived in Melbourne three weeks before the Open is due to start on February 8.
The top Serbian tennis star, Djokovic, had reportedly sent Australian Open boss and CEO of Tennis Australia, Craig Tiley, a letter containing six demands he wanted to see executed for the players in lockdown in Melbourne to help facilitate a better sense of training and preparation for the Slam.
Included in his demands are a reduction in the length of isolation periods for players as a precaution after they have been in or around a positive case, the allowance for players to meet with coaches or trainers and the demand to move as many players as possible to private houses that have on-the-grounds tennis courts to enable better training before the Open begins.
The 33-year-old, who courted controversy by resigning as president of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Player Council to set up the rival Professional Tennis Players Association, also demanded for better food and more fitness equipment delivered to the rooms of players by Tennis Australia.
Andrews did not mince words when he brusquely shut down any notion of reducing the duration of quarantine in any manner: “People are free to provide lists of demands but the answer is no.
“I know that there’s been a bit of chatter from a number of players about the rules – well, the rules apply to them as they apply to everybody else, and they were all briefed on that before they came and that was a condition on which they came.
“There’s no special treatment here.”
Part of the preparation for the Australian Open is an exhibition Open in Adelaide set to begin on January 29th and some of the game’s biggest stars, including Djokovic, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal are preparing to participate.
Providing support for Victoria’s Premier was the Premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall, whose cosmopolitan coastal capital city is Adelaide. He made it abundantly clear that there was no reason to change the quarantine plans for the tennis players in Adelaide.
“We’ve had very good feedback from the group we have in SA (but) the number is very small compared to the numbers in Victoria,” Marshall said.
The Australian Prime Minister himself, Scott Morrison, voiced his concerns about the infected cases entering the country but was quick to point out that preference was not accorded them as the tennis players had not taken the place of Australians overseas who were seeking to return home.
“No-one is being prevented from coming home from overseas because of the Australian Open,” Morrison told radio station 2GB.
“The (tennis) arrangements that the Victorian Government were prepared to accept were agreed and they were laid out. It is time the people follow the rules, do their quarantine, play tennis. They will get paid well for it.”
On his part, Australian Commissioner for COVID-19 Quarantine in Victoria, Emma Cassar, said police presence had been increased at the Open hotels amid cases of “challenging behaviour” from some confined players and support staff.
She straightforwardly said it: “There is zero tolerance for breaches. It’s low level but dangerous acts that we just can’t tolerate.”
To put it in terms that expressed the no-nonsense approach of the government to curtailing the excesses of the players, Cassar warned them and their support staff of the possibility of being slammed with fines up to $20,000. She added that Repeat Offenders could be transferred to the complex care hotel where they have a police officer stationed outside their door.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
