Less than a day after it was announced that all tennis events for the 2021 Australian tennis season would be moved to Melbourne, it has emerged that the plan is still to be finalised.
On Sunday The Herald Sun confirmed that Tennis Australia plans to move all their major events to the state of Victoria, which Melbourne is the capital of. The move follows recent speculation about the viability of players travelling around the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Local governments have confirmed that they are unable to guarantee that players will be free to travel outside of Victoria. Prompting a plan to relocate all the events to Melbourne.
“There is now no risk of the Australian Open going ahead without everyone (all players) in Victoria, and we didn’t have that guarantee previously,” Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley told Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper.
Under the plan tournaments set to be held at Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra will be relocated to the city. They will all take place prior to the Australian Open. Both Hobart and Brisbane have confirmed the decision via statements.
Although it has emerged that there is still some degree of uncertainty with the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, saying that Tennis Australia’s plans are yet to be ‘settled.’ Speaking to watoday.com, Andrews said that his prime objective is to prevent another COVID-19 outbreak in the region. Players have already been told that they will need to isolate for 14 days upon arrival in the country.
“The notion that this is all a done deal, and there’s going to be all these tennis players turn up now, that’s not that is not settled, not settled at all,” he said.
“We’ve got to work through those things in a methodical way. It’s an important event. Absolutely. But avoiding a third wave is arguably even more important, but we’ll keep working through those issues. I think we can have the event go ahead, but it’s going to have to look different.”
It has also been confirmed that the local health authorities are still to approve the proposals. A somewhat worrying situation for the sport with players set to travel to the country next month and start their preparations.
“The public health team need to sign off on all of these arrangements. And they are just not settled, we want the event to happen just like we want the Boxing Day Test. But the thing about the cricket is, compared to the tennis, it’s a tiny group of people that we think we can quarantine. The challenges involved in the Australian Open are very, very different,” said Andrews.
Tennis Australia is yet to respond to Andrews’ comments. Although they have confirmed their desire to move everything to Melbourne to the AFP without outlining specific details.
It is understood that a player must test negative for COVID-19 twice before being allowed to enter the Australian ‘bubble.’
