The 2021 Australian Open has been postponed until early February over 70 tennis players and staff they were forced into an unexpected and strict two-week quarantine period.
The protocol was implemented after positive cases of COVID-19 were discovered on three of the 17 charter flights to the country. Australia, one of the few countries that has a coronavirus pandemic under control, usually requires all travelers entering the country to be quarantined for 14 days in a hotel before being allowed anywhere else in the country.
It is a strict routine, which has the support of the Australian people and has kept COVID cases to a minimum in the country as they get out of control in another part of the world. Unfortunately, for many tennis players it also means that they will now be buried indoors for a period of time for which they were not prepared. Superstars such as Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, although they had a margin of maneuver, being allowed to leave the rooms to practice for hours.
The whole situation is a mess and while most tennis players did well, a few took their complaints to social networks, caressing about food, boredom and uh, the inability to get a hairdresser.
World no. 13 Roberto Bautista Agut compared the fact that he was locked in his pretty hotel room in Melbourne to prison.
“It’s the same, it’s the same, but with Wi-Fi,” he said in an interview. “These people have no idea about tennis, about the training grounds, no idea about anything. It’s a complete disaster because of this, because of control over everyone. ”
Others entered social networks without anything nice to say about the meals they served.
Player Yulia Putintseva had at least one unexpected companion to share her time with.
If we have a clear bastard in the story, it’s Bernard Tomic’s quarantine companion, Vanessa Sierra, who talked extensively about the weight of having only one bathroom and not having access to a hairdresser, because she never washes her hair .
According to ESPN, world number one Novak Djokovic wrote Tennis Australia officials a list of “requests”, asking players to move to “private tennis courts”.
There were also quarantine violations by players.
Extensive quarantine measures are at the behest of the Australian government, which simply applies long-term rules. The doubles player, Artem Sitak, said that Tennis Australia warned him about this scenario.
As for how Australians see the players, well, it’s less likeable.
It is clear then that tennis players are treated like any other person who comes to the country, which is not satisfied with them. Absolutely, players have to be quarantined for so long in tight spaces, but the real issue here is why the Australian Open is happening anyway. The world is still fighting a global pandemic and it takes little peace for the disease to get out of control. The government puts the country’s health first and foremost and rightly does not care about tennis professionals who took a bet during a pandemic. Two weeks locked inside can be devastating to the mind and body, but it was a risk for all knowing players.
All this reminds that sport is a privilege and that tennis players stuck in hotel rooms do not seem to catch on.