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The Australian Open 2021 was thrown into chaos on Saturday after three people on-board the charter flights arranged by Tennis Australia returned positive tests for the COVID-19 virus.
The drama started early on the day of arrival of the players, with news emerging that two people on a flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne had tested positive. As a result, all the passengers on the flight - which included 24 players - were asked to go into total quarantine.
The players were promptly informed they wouldn't be allowed to leave their room for 14 days, which means no room for any kind of on-court training.
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As per the original plan, all the participants undergoing quarantine in Melbourne were supposed to have a five-hour window everyday for practice. But that exemption no longer applies for this set of players, in the wake of the positive tests.
A few hours after the first two positive tests, news break of another - this time on one of Tennis Australia's charter flights from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne. This meant that all passengers even on this flight - including 23 players - couldn't leave their room for 14 days.
While there has been no confirmation of the names of those who tested positive or of the players who were part of the flights, tennis reporters on social media have speculated that the two on the LA flight who tested positive were a coach and a member of the flight crew.
In addition, there were rumors that one of the 50 people being quarantined in Adelaide had also tested positive too.
However, the Australian Open 2021 organizers have issued a statement to clarify that there is no 'active COVID-19 infection in the entire tennis cohort based in Adelaide'.
Players take to social media to discuss their struggles at Australian Open 2021
Quite naturally, the players are not happy about the way things have unfolded at the start of Australian Open 2021. France's Alize Cornet was one of the first to react on social media, but she later deleted her tweet after receiving a lot of backlash.
The criticism was led by local citizens, who fear that an infected person entering the country could undo all the work put in by the government to control the spread of the virus. The decision of Tennis Australia to bring over 1,000 people for the Australian Open 2021 after months of lockdown has not gone down well with many Victorians.
A Zoom call during the day between the Australian Open 2021 organizers and the players didn't produce any resolution either, as per reports.
WTA players Paula Badosa and Marta Kostyuk also discussed some of the challenges they faced due to the changed rules.
Kostyuk claimed it would be impossible for players to meet expectations after being inside a room for two weeks without any training or practice, something that the likes of Sorana Cirstea also reiterated. Kirsten Flipkens, meanwhile, suggested that the Australian Open be pushed back by a week so that all the quarantined players would get enough time to train and be on a level playing field with the rest.
