The head of Tennis Australia has admitted that there is a chance that the Australian Open could not be played for the first time in over 30 years.
Craig Tiley has told the Australian Associated Press (AAOP) that numerous options are being looked at regarding the grand slam, which is scheduled to take place in January. All tennis tournaments have come to a standstill since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a resumption date still up in the air. Wimbledon has already been cancelled for the first time since 1945. Meanwhile, there are ongoing doubts about the likelihood of both the US Open and French Open events going ahead as planned.
Should the Melbourne major take place next year, there is expected to be some significant changes. Including the possibility of having no foreign visitors to the event. A total of 812,174 fans attended the event over 14 days this season, according to official figures.
“The worst – case scenario is no AO (Australian Open),” Tiley said.
“Our best-case scenario at this point is having an AO with players that we can get in here with quarantining techniques and Australian-only fans.”
Both the ATP and WTA have previously said they are hopeful of resuming the sport before the year ends. However, some have expressed doubts over the chances of that occurring. World No.2 Rafael Nadal recently told Spanish newspaper El Pais that he believes it is likely that the current season is over.
Amid the uncertainty, Tiley is implementing a contingency plan that covers a series of options for the grand slam. Including potentially holding the tournament without fans or even moving it to another date in the calendar.
“There’s four scenarios and we’ve modelled everything,” he said.
“We’ve modelled the times we have to make decisions, dates we have to make decisions, who it impacts, how it’s going to impact them.
“We’ve done that for 670 staff. We’ve done that for all of our partners – our media partners, our sponsors and for all the governments and places we rent facilities (from).
“And now we’re working on the international playing group and getting them to understand what each of those scenarios are and what it means for them and how we can action it.”
Australia has had fewer cases of the coronavirus than other parts of the world, according to figures provided by Reuters on May 6th. There have been less than 7000 cases with under 1000 of those still being treated for the virus. Although 96 people have died.
The last time the Australian Open didn’t take place was in 1986 due to a change in it’s hosting date from December to January. Founded in 1905, it is the youngest out of the four grand slam tournaments.
