Craig Tiley: 'In the worst scenario, we will have to cancel the Australian Open 2021'

The tennis season has been halted since early March due to the coronavirus pandemic, with many tournaments switching focus to the next year, including Wimbledon that will not open its gates for the first time since 1945! Officially, there will be no professional tournaments at least until mid-July, with both the players and fans hoping to receive some positive news in the upcoming weeks and to at least witness some action from September. The US Open and Roland Garros organizers have been doing their best to host the events but it doesn't seem likely at the moment that we are going to see some tennis in New York or Paris, with everyone following strict health rules and recommendations.

Some players like Rafael Nadal have already turned their attention to the next season but it may also start later than planned, with a possibility of missing the Australian Open as well. Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley and his team have been working on four scenarios and the most unfortunate one is to cancel the first Major of the season. In what seems to be the final decision, the crowd from all over the world will not be able to travel to Melbourne in January, with Tiley leaving space to host the event in front of the Australian-only fans. 

"Worst-case scenario for us is not to hold the Australian Open," Tiley said. "Our best-case scenario at this point is to have the Australian Open with players that we can get in here with quarantining techniques and Australian-only fans. There are four scenarios, and we have modeled everything. We have shaped the times we have to make decisions, dates we have to make decisions, who it affects and how it's going to impact them. We have done that for 670 staff and all of our partners - our media partners, our sponsors and all the governments and places we rent facilities from. Now we are working on the international playing group and getting them to understand what each of those scenarios are and what it means for them and how we can action it."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2SOyoA9