The Australian Open tennis championship was to be Corona’s graduation party on the continent and in the tennis industry itself. The tournament, which has been postponed to February 8, has received every possible blow in recent days: from the virus itself to the national mood in Australia. This mostly raises the question again when next time we will see a big international tournament with an audience?
On paper the plan was optimistic. Australia, which has maintained a strict regime regarding the war in Corona, has already fantasized about bringing an audience to its tournament on the condition that the tennis players stay in isolation, play small warm-up tournaments in the coming month and then get to the real thing.
Only then did the troubles begin to arrive: Andy Murray, who was given a free ticket to the competition, caught up with Corona just before boarding the plane to Australia, and now he hopes to make it to the last minute and play in the tournament itself.
American Dennis Cudla (114th in the world) was ranked fourth in the Australian Championship qualifiers and managed to qualify for the final round of the qualifiers, but then he was told he was positive for Corona and had to run for two weeks in isolation, with his third-round opponent receiving a technical victory.
Corona flight from Dubai
The huge wave of retirement from the tournament has already led to low-ranked players in the world (including Dudi Sela who actually retired from active tennis) receiving invitations to come and participate in the tournament. But the response so far has been very low, with Roger Federer of course announcing that he is not coming.
But that’s not all. The top female in world tennis raised a story from a flight departing from Dubai for Australia. Actresses Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stevens, among others, were on the flight, and when the flight reached its destination it became clear that one of the passengers who left Dubai was ill with corona and the players had to enter the hotel for two weeks without training or leaving, just a month before the tournament.
Kay Nashkuri in men received the same message in men on another flight that arrived on the continent. Another player in the round received a message that he was positive after reaching the continent, but claimed that it was a mistake because he fell ill in Corona and recovered. The Australians accepted his version.
Even home troubles are not lacking for Australian organizers. The local government has taken a line that has often been defined by the country’s residents as dictatorial, so much so that 40,000 Australians living in other countries have been denied entry into their homeland for the past six months.
Now that foreign tennis players and their crews are landing in the country, demonstrations have begun in the country calling for the tournament to be canceled and, alternatively, to have their family members returned outside the country to Australia. To date, 1,200 foreigners associated with the big tennis tournament have landed in Australia.