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The Australian Open will continue without fans from midnight Friday (8 a.m. ET Friday in the US) after it was announced that Victoria would return to lockdown to curb the spread of the Holiday coronavirus outbreak Inn.
Victoria will return to lockdown starting at midnight Friday with Victoria Premier Dan Andrews announcing the state will begin a Stage 4 lockdown until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.
“This hyper-infectious variant is moving at lightning speed,” Andrews said.
“It’s a short, loud explosion – the same one we saw in Queensland and [Western Australia] – it will give us what we need to get ahead of this faster growing virus. We can cover it up. “
MORE: Australian Open schedule
As of midnight Friday, there will only be four valid reasons for Victorians to leave home: errands, essential work, two hours of exercise, and care.
Nick Kyrgios is set to face John Cain Arena on Friday night against No.3 seed Dominic Thiem, where Kyrgios has lost just twice in 13 matches.
“I hope people use common sense and good judgment and maybe don’t go out tonight as they planned to do,” Andrews said. “It would be a good thing for them, for all of us.”
If the match were to last five sets, the midnight cutoff could come into play. What this means for fans is not yet known.
“We’ll let the event get back to you with the operational details,” said Andrews. “For example, if you choose 9pm – when we thought we would choose 9pm – because that probably prevents some people from being late at night in various places, which we – would be a good thing, but it would mean that there would be a lot of things that had started but were not finished.
“Midnight means there will be less. But as to how tennis is going to comply and the different – the very localized things that they’re going to do – I’m going to let them talk.”
At the end of January, it was revealed that attendance would be capped at 30,000 spectators for the first eight days of the event before being reduced to 25,000 from the start of the quarter-finals.
Although the Prime Minister has not explicitly mentioned the Australian Open, it seems professional sport will continue as before.
“AFLW or this event or a number of other large and small professional sporting events, they will basically function as a workplace,” Andrews said. “But they won’t function as an entertainment event because there won’t be a crowd.
“And the workforce will be the minimum necessary to make this safe and secure against COVID in many other settings.”
However, despite the above speculation and tweet, Andrews said athletes are not essential workers.
“It’s not the distinction we made,” Andrews said. “If you can work from home, you have to do it from home. That’s the guiding principle. And I think that probably answers the question. [on athletes being essential workers]. You cannot stack the shelves in the supermarket at home. You cannot be involved with AFLW from home. This is the basis of it.
“Again, if it was a longer-term perspective, and not a five-day perspective, things might be different. This is not the situation we find ourselves in.”
Tournament Director Craig Tiley will likely speak to the media on Friday afternoon
The tournament is currently scheduled to end on February 21.
This article will be updated.
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