Australian Open 2021 with half crowd and no foreign fans

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley reveals the first details about the Australian Open 2021, the first Slam of the next season, which will also serve to understand if tennis and daily life have returned to normal after all the problems caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic , which wiped out more than half of the 2020 tennis season.

During an interview, Tiley talked about several arguments regarding the Melbourne Slam and all the precautions that will be taken to ensure maximum safety for the players, the staff, the media and the crowd.

Tiley said: "We certainly cannot expect to repeat last year's numbers, when 821,000 crossed the gates of Melbourne Park: first of all the spectators will all come from Melbourne, from the state of Victoria, perhaps from some other Australian state and maybe from New Zealand. if the corridor can be created to circumvent the closure of their borders. Surely 15% of spectators who usually come to the Australian Open from the rest of the world will not be able to come."

Bubbles, half-crowd and no foreign fans

The seats on the stands will be reduced and the accredited must be part of a security bubble, exactly as the USTA is planning to be able to carry out the US Open. The Rod Laver Arena will be limited to half the crowd (7,500 people) and players from other countries will need to be tested regularly and carry out a quarantine period.

On purpose Tiley told: "We have yet to define what the type and frequency of the texts will be, the length of the quarantine and whether it will be necessary to limit the entourage of the players" confirmed Tiley. If things will go well in New York and Paris, players should be reassured and more likely to come here next year. Some countries may impose a 14-day quarantine on anyone returning from Melbourne, and it will be up to athletes to understand how this will affect their training plans."

 Australia only allows its own citizens and permanent residents to enter the country, so if the situation does not change in the coming months it will be necessary to obtain a derogation for the entry of all tennis players, their staff and all the people necessary to make the first Slam of the year go on stage.

We do not forget that in recent weeks Melbourne has been the center of an outbreak of contagions which has forced the authorities to declare a six-week lockdown in order of being able to contain the epidemic before the beginning of the next months: in order tu guarantee a safe Australian Open 2021.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2CYM4DZ