'I understand emotion the players are going through' says Craig Tiley

Just a couple of days after the players landed in Melbourne, the organizers of the season's first Major are dealing with numerous issues, even before the first practice sessions!

Over 60 players will have to pass a two-week quarantine without leaving the room following positive coronavirus cases from three different flights (Los Angeles, Abu Dhabi and Doha).

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The players are not happy with how things have developed so far, and there are many other issues with food, fitness facilities in the room and internet connection, just to make things even worse.

Many players are furious about the fact that one positive case from their flight will have to keep them locked without a single practice run, saying they would have considered the Melbourne trip had they knew that.

The Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley understands their reactions, although there's not much room for improvements at the moment.

"I understand the emotion the players are going through right now, as well as their objection to the situation. The determination of who was and who wasn't a close contact was going to be entirely up to the health department, and they're doing what they deem is necessary to keep our community safe. What has changed over the last several weeks is the new UK strain, which is more infectious, and there's a great desire by all of us to make sure that doesn't come into our community.

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These conditions are constantly changing, but there's always a risk. We did make it very clear at the beginning that there was a risk that someone would be positive; that's why we had the player groups in cohorts. There was a risk on the plane that everyone could be a close contact; that's why we brought the 14-day quarantine. Unfortunately, we're in an environment now where we've got to manage it.

It's a challenging situation, and we've got to do whatever we can to make it as fair as possible for those players that are in lockdown now. Our first objective is that everyone remains as healthy as possible and is not the cause of further spread within the bubble. The Australian Open starts on 8 February. We are reviewing the schedule leading in to see what we can do to assist these players," Craig Tiley said.