Daily Times

Grand Slam champions are among the 47 players in hard lockdown after four positive tests for COVID-19 emerged from two of the charter flights bringing players, staff, officials and media to Australia for the first tennis major of the season.

Some players were angry at being classified as close contacts merely for being on board those flights with people who later tested positive and, therefore, forced into a harsher quarantine than the broader group of players who´ll be allowed out of their rooms to practice for up to five hours per day.

But local health authorities have said all players were warned of the risks in advance. And any players considering bending the rules have been warned. Breach quarantine regulations and there´s the prospect of heavy fines or being moved to a more secure quarantine complex with police stationed at their doors.

Three cases were announced Saturday and Victoria state´s COVID-19 quarantine commissioner Emma Cassar told a news conference on Sunday that there´d been a fourth positive test involving a person flying in for the Australian Open. So far, none has involved a player.

Three cases emerged from the flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne, officials said, including a member of the air crew, a coach and the latest being a member of the TV broadcasting team. The other case was a coach who took the charter flight from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne.

All four had tested negative before boarding their flights to Australia. All four have now been transferred to a health hotel.

Sylvain Bruneau, who coaches 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, posted on social media to say he was on the flight from Abu Dhabi and had test positive.

Two-time Open champion Victoria Azarenka and the 2014 US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori were reported to be on the flight from Los Angeles. All passengers from both of those flights are in hard lockdown.

Cassar, who is also in charge of the state´s prisons, said there´d been cases of people “testing” the quarantine procedures, triggering a warning and a conversation with the state´s police, but no attempts to escape quarantine.

“There´ll be zero tolerance for that behavior,” Cassar said. “This is designed to make people safe. We make no apologies for that.”

Several players in quarantine, including Sorana Cirstea of Romania, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan complained in social media posts that the rules seemed to have changed between what they saw before traveling to Australia and what was being imposed in Melbourne.

Cirstea posted on Twitter: “If they would have told us this rule before I would not play Australia … I would have stayed home. They told us we would fly at 20% capacity, in sections and we would be a close contact ONLY if my team or cohort tests positive.”

But government officials have rejected those claims.

“There´s no other way you can consider this. If you´re on a plane 16-24 hours, with air that circulates throughout the plane, you are a close contact,” Cassar said. “This was made very clear and nothing has changed.”

Tennis Australia confirmed there were 24 players on the flight from Los Angeles and 23 on the flight from Abu Dhabi. Those were among 17 charter flights from seven international destinations bringing up to 1,200 players, coaches, staff and officials into Australia for the tournament.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley told Australia’s Nine Network that organizers and players were forewarned there’d be a “significant risk” of restrictions being imposed on players if there were positive COVID-19 cases.

“We did make it very clear in the beginning,” Tiley said. “Now we have to manage an environment over the next 14 days for those who won´t be able to practice. “It´s a tough situation. We´ve got to do whatever we can to make it as fair as possible for those player that are in lockdown.”