Australian Open to go Ahead Despite COVID-19 Case

The Australian Open will begin as scheduled on Monday even though a worker at one of the Melbourne hotels used to quarantine players and their entourages tested positive for COVID-19, tournament director Craig Tiley said on Thursday.

A total of 507 people connected to the event were told to isolate by Melbourne health officials on Wednesday after a hotel worker tested positive.

Play at six warm-up events and the Slam draws were postponed on Thursday.

The warm-up events, which are all taking place at Melbourne Park, will resume on Friday.

The women’s matches have been reduced to two sets and a first-to-10 match tie-break, although the men’s matches will still be played over three sets.

The disruption came after it was announced on Wednesday that a 26-year-old man tested positive for Covid-19 after working at the Grand Hyatt hotel where the players affected were staying in a 14-day quarantine.

The security guard tested negative after his final shift at the hotel on 29 January but returned a positive result after he was tested again on 2 February.

The 160 players, plus their support staff and tournament officials, are deemed to be casual contacts by Victorian state health bosses.

They will be allowed out of isolation once they return a negative test.

British players Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie are among those who stayed in the hotel but were able to practice on Thursday after receiving negative tests.

Evans, Britain’s leading men’s player, was due to play in the Murray River Open on Thursday and is now set to play twice on Friday.

The Grand Slam tournament was pushed back by three weeks to enable players to quarantine on their arrival in Australia.

Australia has imposed some of the world’s toughest restrictions over the past year in a bid to suppress coronavirus.

Months of strict border controls – both internationally and domestically – have helped limit Covid-19 cases to less than 29,000 and deaths to less than 1,000.