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All available players will reveal themselves for Australian Open, insists Craig Tiley, tournament director and CEO of Tennis Australia.
American big name John Isner withdrew from the Open on Tuesday, citing family reasons that appeared to be related to quarantine lockdowns for players.
Roger Federer withdrew following knee surgery, the most prominent absentee. Top players like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams remain engaged in the tournament, from February 8 in Melbourne.
“We have very tough conditions, obviously. We do it for a reason because our goal has always been a safe environment,” Tiley TODAY said Wednesday.
“But our relationship and our communication with all the players, everyone comes who can come. The few who have retired have retired due to injury-related reasons; Roger has just recovered from an operation, for example, and they are few.
“We will have these players who test positive before taking a flight. They will not be able to fly, so they will also have to retire and we will know more in the next three days while we get the test results.
“They have to do this test 72 hours before taking a flight and have to fill out all kinds of forms before taking a flight. So, quite a bit of logistics over the next three days to figure out exactly who is here, but we expect a complete playground. “
A group of top players – including Djokovic, Nadal and Williams – supposedly will be able to complete their 14-day quarantine in an Adelaide hub capped at 50 people; among a total contingent of travelers of around 1,200.
Other players and squad members will stay in Melbourne and be stranded in their hotel rooms for 19 hours a day, with just five hours to train and exercise.
“This announcement for the top three is a bit out of the blue, and it’s weird, to say the least,” world No.72 Jeremy Chardy told L’Equipe.
“They will even be able to benefit from a gym at the hotel and be able to exercise, which will not count towards the five hour quota. Anyone can go out. They can almost live normally.”
Tiley admitted the conditions: “This is not the training regimen they would like to be used to.”
Preparing for the Australian Open under COVID-19 restrictions is proving extremely costly for Tennis Australia. Tiley confirmed that the costs directly related to the quarantine and biosecurity measures will exceed $ 40 million.
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