Australian Open will go ahead as ‘nearly’ every single tennis player tests negative to Covid-19
Australian Open WILL go ahead as ‘nearly’ every single tennis player tests negative to Covid-19 – as Victoria records zero new cases despite quarantine chaos
- Australian Open thrown into chaos with players and officials forced to isolate
- From 507 conronavirus tests, all have come back negative with 12 tests pending
- Tournament will ahead as planned from Monday with crowd in attendance
- Victoria recorded no new cases after hotel quarantine worker tested positive
The Australian Open will begin in Melbourne on Monday as planned, tennis officials have confirmed.
Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley announced on Friday morning that the results are back for almost all of the 507 players and officials tested for coronavirus on Thursday.
Everyone has tested negative so far with just 12 results pending from those tested on Thursday night.
The news comes as Victoria reported zero new cases on Friday.
Test results are back for almost all of the 507 Australian Open players and officials tested for coronavirus on Thursday. Pictured is Croatian player Donna Vekic waiting to be tested
‘Hopefully we’ll get the positive outcome in the next few hours that all tests are negative,’ he told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
Mr Tiley said the Open would go ahead as planned from Monday and there has been no change to crowd arrangements, initially capped between 25,000 to 30,000 each day.
‘Spectators will continue to be allowed in the site, and we are still selling tickets,’ he said.
‘The site will be an extremely safe place.’
The tennis grand slam was thrown into chaos on Wednesday night after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive to the highly contagious UK strain of the virus.
Around 520 tennis stars, officials and support staff were identified as casual contacts of the 26-year-old man who worked at the Grand Hyatt hotel.
Victoria recorded no new cases of coronavirus on Friday. Pictured are Australian Open players and officials queuing to be tested on Thursday
The Australian Open will go ahead, despite a Melbourne hotel quarantine worker testing positive to the highly contagious UK strain of the virus. Pictured are tournament participants leaving the Grand Hyatt hotel on Thursday
It forced the suspension of warm-up matches scheduled to be played on Thursday.
Melbourne Park lead-up matches will resume on Friday.
Tennis great and former Australian Open finalist Lleyton Hewitt doesn’t believe the latest setback will affect players ahead of the tournament.
‘For them to freshen up for a day probably wasn’t the worst thing because it was really the only players put in that position yesterday were the ones staying in that particular hotel where the one case came from,’ he told the Today show on Friday.
‘The rest of them were out there actually practicing and striking a few yesterday, trying to fine tune.
‘The tough part now is to try to get all the matches in over the next three days before the Australian Open starts.’
The Australian Open will go ahead as planned and will welcome tennis fans capped at 50 per cent capacity. Pictured is packed Rod Laver Arena at the 2020 Australian Open
