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MELBOURNE, Australia – Organizers of the Australian Open faced a player rebellion on Saturday after passengers on two charter flights bringing them to Melbourne tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting everyone to edge to quarantine for two weeks.
The flights carried 47 female players – including several prominent female competitors who had just competed in the first round of the women’s circuit last week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – as well as journalists, coaches and others.
Passengers were asked to test negative for the virus within 72 hours of departing flights from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi. They were tested again after landing in Melbourne, and three people on the flights were found to be infected with the virus, prompting health officials in the Australian state of Victoria to order all passengers to remain in their hotel room for 14 days.
For players on flights, that means tighter restrictions than they anticipated ahead of the Australian Open, the first major tennis tournament of 2021, set to kick off on February 8.
Tournament participants agreed to stay in their rooms for 19 hours a day and were allowed five hours a day at the tennis center to train, train and eat.
Those rules were further tightened on Saturday for the 47 players on the two charter flights, who were told they couldn’t leave their hotel rooms at all.
Tennis officials have called for more leniency for players who have tested negative multiple times in their first days in Australia, but government officials have refused to relax the rules. Tennis players and officials were not aware, when they went ahead with plans to host the tournament, that the government could impose such restrictions.
“We are communicating with everyone on this flight, and in particular with the playgroup whose conditions have now changed, to ensure that their needs are met as much as possible, and that they are fully assessed of the situation,” said Craig Tiley, managing director of Tennis Australia, which hosts the tournament.
Tiley ran a series of tough video conferencing sessions with the players to explain the changes.
In a live Instagram broadcast on Saturday night, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine told compatriot Paula Badosa of Spain that she had been blinded by the decision and would have to compete on an uneven playing field .
“It’s about the idea of staying in a room for two weeks and being able to compete,” said Kostyuk, who couldn’t remember the last time she didn’t pick up a racket for two weeks. “We have to stay in quarantine, but we have to meet expectations.”
The rapidly changing situation and growing frustration among gamers illustrate just how complicated hosting major sporting events in the midst of a pandemic can be. Even – or maybe mostly – Australia, which has recorded fewer than 30,000 cases since the pandemic began because it imposes some of the toughest rules of any democratic nation, including a severe cut in domestic travel.
Tennis Australia is spending tens of millions of dollars on special arrangements to comply with government health regulations, but the virus has found ways to hamper even the most expensive plans sports organizations have come up with to stay operational .
Tennis Australia chartered 17 flights from seven countries to bring players and support staff to the tournament, limiting capacity to 25% on each plane.
The flight from Abu Dhabi caused the most consternation as it carried players who had competed in the first event of the year on the women’s circuit, among them Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, who made the final on Wednesday.
Steve Simon, managing director of the WTA Tour, attended one of the videoconferences on Saturday but the organization, which represents the players and the tournaments, has so far deferred to Tennis Australia on the consequences of the new cases.
A spokesperson for the organization said the WTA “is working with Tennis Australia on the challenges they are currently facing, with a focus on finding appropriate solutions that support the significant efforts and investments that are being made around of the Australian tennis summer.
Players of the Los Angeles flight included Victoria Azarenka, 2020 US Open finalist and two-time Australian Open champion.
Officials said a flight attendant tested positive on the Los Angeles flight. Sylvain Bruneau, coach of Canadian player Bianca Andreescu, said he tested positive after arriving on the flight from Abu Dhabi.
“I followed all safety protocols and procedures including negative tests within 72 hours of flight departure and felt perfectly fine when I boarded the aircraft,” Bruneau said in a statement. “I have also respected and followed all COVID protocols and guidelines in the Middle East. I don’t know how I got this virus. I am extremely saddened and sorry for the consequences now on the shoulders of everyone sharing my flight.
Another player, American Tennys Sandgren, received special permission to travel on the flight from Los Angeles despite a recent positive test. Health officials determined he was not contagious because he had not shown any symptoms and had already contracted the virus in November. “Some people who have recovered from Covid-19 and who are not infectious may continue to shed the virus for several months”, the tournament said.
Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium has expressed empathy for players facing a stricter quarantine due to the new infections. “Everyone should quarantine for two weeks or the Aus Open would have to be pushed back for a week,” Flipkens wrote on Twitter.
A delay would require a major overhaul of an already carefully revamped schedule, and it would cost Tennis Australia significantly more money to keep more than 1,000 people coming to Australia to compete in Melbourne for an additional week. Tiley and her medical adviser said they were waiting to learn more about the infections.
Ben rothenberg reported from Washington.
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