After discovering positive coronavirus cases among flights to Melbourne, the Australian Open faces Covid-19. As a matter of fact, 72 tennis players are being locked down in hotel rooms for a 14-days quarantine with no training whatsoever.
At the beginning of the year, the Australian government was very supportive of this season’s first Grand Slam because it “would guarantee the future of the Australian Open on a long term“.
The Issue
However, with no appropriate nutrition and no trainings at all, how are players expected to compete?
It is worth mentioning that quarantine rules have been somehow discriminatory and at the favor of the biggest players: Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem, S. Williams, Halep and Osaka. In fact, these 6 were headed to Adelaide to compete in “A Day at the Drive“, a one-day exhibition event that would have been held on January 29. So these 6 players are currently quarantining in Adelaide where the restrictions are relatively softer than those imposed in Melbourne. Hence, not all players are given equal opportunities to train.
Djokovic’s Suggestions
Therefore, this specific issue led world’s #1 Tennis player Novak Djokovic proposing on behalf of all the 72 other confined players, a list of suggestions that would improve quarantine conditions for players and prepare them physically and mentally to compete in the up-coming Australian Open.
Djokovic requests were: “better food, shortening the isolation periods if players tested negative and having players moved to “private houses with tennis courts”” among others.
Nevertheless, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews refused to concede any special treatment for the players.
More importantly, the suggestions made by Nole attracted a lot of criticism. In fact, they were seen as selfish and ungrateful by the media and in the public’s eye.
In his defense, Djokovic stated the below heart-felt message on his social media explaining his initiative:
The Controversiality
On one hand, I, personally, can understand the Australian Government’s awareness and their efforts to rigorously contain the Covid-19 situation. On the other hand, I can also understand the players’ frustration when it comes to training. Athletes who are used to train for at least 5 hours per day on court, cannot be expected to sit on their couches for 14 consecutive days and then compete in a Grand Slam. You can’t actually practice Tennis in your room in front of the TV.
Hotel Rooms’ Trainings
This said, here’s how the confined Tennis players are training:
Let us know on which side you stand in the comments below.
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Taking decisions is always controversial and subject to comments in a period like this,
where life of people is on the stake … but as they say the show must go on …
So if the australian goverment took this decision , so lets do it happily and see it as a new experience …. and when the tournament finish we can evaluate if it was a good or bad decision ….
meanwhile lets enjoy this moment how awful it may seem ..
Thank you Tony for your comment.
As you said, we will try to enjoy the Australian Open from our couches and hopefully, we’ll be back afterwards with a feedback.
Stay tuned 🙂
Jess
We suffered months of lockdown in Melbourne so it is critical that the 14 days of quarantine be undertaken. Furthermore that the hard lockdown be done for those on the flights.
Players knew the risks when they came why didn’t they come a bit earlier to allow sufficient preparation time?
I personally would have cancelled the event. We are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Tennis is not important and I love my tennis. Please note I am a player and I played in the Australian Open juniors years ago.
Dear Oli,
Thank you for your comment. I totally agree with you. In my opinion, this current situation could decrease the level of the competition as players won’t be prepared.
Not to mention that we are still fighting the virus and it is far from over. So as you said, health currently prevails.
Would love to hear more about your tennis experience 🙂
Jess