CORONAVIRUS. The Australian Open is still on despite suspension

The Australian Open will still go on as planned despite the recent setback

By
Mark Hall
-
Craig Tiley

This edition of the Australian Open seems to be more and more tricky to organize. Australia has been extremely cautious and hugely successful in dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic to register just 909 deaths during the whole pandemic. This low death toll was possible as the whole country was very swift in dealing with the cases. This successful approach made things complicated for the Australian Open, but it was obviously great for the local population which has to be the priority.

The halting of tennis

After 14 days of quarantine, the tennis players finally started to compete. However, a worker at the Grand Hyatt Hotel was found positive for Coronavirus. Since that was the hotel where hundreds of players were in quarantine, the tennis competitions were stopped for Thursday.

 

No issues with the Australian Open

Craig Tiley, the excellent CEO of Tennis Australia, announced that the plans to stage the Australian Open will not be changed. The current competitions will resume on Friday and some players may need to play 2 matches on Saturday. That is not ideal right before a slam, but the all situation is tricky.

The draw ceremony of the Australian Open had to take place on Thursday, but that will also be postponed to Friday. Since rain is forecasted for the next few days, some matches may be played indoors.