MELBOURNE, Australia – Australian Open organizers faced a rebellion of players on Saturday after passengers on two chartered flights that took them to Melbourne tested positive for the coronavirus, requesting everyone on board to be quarantined for two weeks.
The flights carried 47 players – including several renowned competitors who had played in the first women’s tournament event last week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – in addition to some journalists, coaches and others.
Passengers were asked to test negative for the virus within 72 hours of departing from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi. They were tested again after landing in Melbourne, and three people on the flights were diagnosed with the virus, which prompted health officials in the Australian state of Victoria to order all passengers to stay in their hotel rooms for 14 days.
For flight players, this means stricter restrictions than they had planned before the Australian Open, the first major tennis tournament in 2021, which is scheduled to begin on February 8.
Tournament participants agreed to stay in their rooms 19 hours a day and were entitled to five hours a day at the tennis center to practice, train and eat.
Those rules were even stricter on Saturday for the 47 players on the two charter flights, who were told they could not leave their hotel rooms.
Tennis officials called for more leniency for players who repeatedly tested negative in their early days in Australia, but government officials refused to soften the rules. Tennis players and officials did not know, when they advanced with plans to organize the tournament, that the government could impose such restrictions.
“We are communicating with everyone on this flight, especially with the gaming group whose conditions have now changed, to ensure that their needs are met as much as possible and that they are fully assessed on the situation,” said Craig Tiley, Tennis’s chief executive. Australia, which is organizing the tournament.
Tiley held a series of difficult videoconferencing sessions with players to explain the changes.
In a live stream on Instagram late on Saturday, Marta Kostyuk from Ukraine told fellow player Paula Badosa from Spain that she had been taken aback by the decision and would have to compete on an uneven playing field.
“It’s about the idea of staying in a room for two weeks and being able to compete,” said Kostyuk, who did not remember the last time he did not pick up a racket for two weeks. “We have to be quarantined, but we have to live up to expectations.”
The rapidly changing situation and growing frustration among players illustrate how complicated it can be to host major sporting events in the midst of a pandemic. Even – or perhaps especially – in Australia, which has had less than 30,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, because it imposes some of the strictest rules in any democratic nation, including severe restrictions on domestic travel.
Tennis Australia is spending tens of millions of dollars on special deals to meet government health regulations, but the virus has found ways to undermine even the most expensive plans that sports organizations have devised to stay in operation.
Tennis Australia chartered 17 flights from seven countries to bring players and support staff to the tournament, limiting capacity to 25% on each plane.
The flight from Abu Dhabi caused the greatest consternation for transporting players who had played the first event of the year in the women’s tournament, among them Veronika Kudermetova, from Russia, who played in the final on Wednesday.
Steve Simon, chief executive of the WTA Tour, attended one of the video conferences on Saturday, but the organization, which represents players and tournaments, has so far postponed Tennis Australia on the consequences of the new cases.
A spokesman for the organization said that the WTA is “working with Tennis Australia on the challenges facing today, with a focus on finding appropriate solutions that support the significant efforts and investments being made around the Summer of Tennis in Australia”.
Players on the Los Angeles flight included Victoria Azarenka, a U.S. Open finalist in 2020 and a two-time Australian Open champion.
Officials said a flight attendant tested positive for the flight to Los Angeles. Canadian coach Bianca Andreescu, Sylvain Bruneau, said he had a positive test after arriving on the Abu Dhabi flight.
“I followed all safety protocols and procedures, including negative tests 72 hours before the flight left and I felt perfectly good when I got on the plane,” said Bruneau in a statement. “I also respected and followed all COVID protocols and guidelines while in the Middle East. I have no idea how I may have contracted this virus. I am extremely sad and sorry for the consequences now on everyone’s shoulders sharing my flight. “
Another player, Tennys Sandgren, from the United States, received special permission to travel on the flight from Los Angeles, despite a recent positive test. Health officials determined he was not infectious because he had no symptoms and had already contracted the virus in November. “Some people who have recovered from Covid-19 and are not infectious can continue to spread the virus for several months.” the tournament said.
Kirsten Flipkens, from Belgium, expressed empathy for players who faced a stricter quarantine because of new infections. “Everyone should be quarantined for two weeks or the Aus Open should be postponed for a week,” wrote Flipkens on Twitter.
A delay would require a significant overhaul of a schedule that has already been carefully redesigned, and it would cost Tennis Australia significantly more money to keep more than 1,000 people who came to Australia for the competition in Melbourne for another week. Tiley and his medical advisor said they were hoping to find out more details about the infections.
Ben Rothenberg reported from Washington.