Tennis Australia has updated the fans that the Australian Open will be played without fans for 5 days due to a lockdown imposed by the Victorian government.
The new strict rules imposed by the Victorian government come after several positive cases were confirmed at a Melbourne airport hotel. The lockdown will last for 5 days and players will only be able to travel to Melbourne Park from the Hotel and back. During that timespan, no fans will be allowed into the stands with Saturday being the first day of the new rules.
Australian Open tournament director addresed the reporters and said:
"All along we have said our number one priority is the safety and health of the community as well as all our guests from around the world. We have a series of contingency plans, ranging from the cancellation of the event to what we’ve been experiencing. One of the plans has been to compete in a bubble and do it in a safe way. There has been a playbook for this and we started operationalising based on the decisions made today by the Premier."
Asked about whether it will impact the players Tiley responded that he doesn't think it will:
"Players will be under the same restrictions as all Victorians when they leave the [Melbourne Park] precinct. [But] I imagine they will spend all of their time here. They’ve got to practise, they’ve got to prepare… This is how the majority of the players do it year-round. They go from the hotel to the site. This is something they are very used to.”
If the lockdown does not extend beyond it's originally planned timeframe, fans should be back in arenas on Wednesday.
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