Australian Open 2021: third flight in isolation for a case of positivity!
After the complicated 2020 tennis season, it seems that even 2021 will not be outdone: in the past few hours, cases of positivity to the COVID-19 virus have been found on two direct flights to Melbourne, one from Abu Dhabi and the other from Los Angeles.
All passengers on board, including many players, have been forced to enter a two-week quarantine, from which they will not be able to leave even for training. This could have major repercussions on the Melbourne Grand Slam, which now really risks starting without the participation of numerous players from the men's and women's Tour.
Among the people on board, many tennis players who will take part in the first Major event of the year: Bianca Andreescu, Angelique Kerber, Paula Badosa, Marta Kostyuk, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Belinda Bencic, Elena Rybakina, Ons Jabeur and Maria Sakkari, among many others
The nightmare is not over yetA little while ago, news came of a third flight now in isolation in Melbourne: it is the QR7485 directed from Doha in Australia, on which a new case of Coronavirus positivity has just been recorded.
On the plane, mainly players who had taken part in the Australian Open qualifiers in recent days, including the Frenchman Alexandre Muller, who shared the message received on his phone on Twitter: "Hello everyone", reads the image, “Unfortunately, we have bad news for you. We have just been informed by the health authorities that a person on flight QR7485 coming from Doha was found positive for the Coronavirus test upon his arrival in Melbourne."
Muller, born in 1997, now occupies the 208th position in the ATP world rankings. In the Australian Open qualifiers he beat Federico Gaio 6-1 6-1 in the first round, in the second round the Canadian Peter Polansky 6-0 6-1 and then lost in the last match against Aslan Karatsev in two sets.
Last November he took part in the Challenger of Ortisei, coming out in the semifinals against compatriot Antoine Hoang 6-2 in the third and last set. In Melbourne the Serbian Novak Djokovic is called to defend the title, after the triumph he arrived last year against Dominic Thiem. In the last few hours there were some complains of Australian people (inclding the health minister), especially of the Victoria state, against Tennis Australia and of players against quarantine hotel accomodiations.
Allez hop ! A LA NICHE !!!!! pic.twitter.com/SkGdOfCGGH
— Alexandre Müller (@Alex2Mumu) January 17, 2021
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/39Id5rt
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