Alarm in Australia: 50 tennis players locked up for COVID-19 positives on flights

First problems for the Australian Open when there are still more than three weeks until its start (it is scheduled on February 8). Three people (including a coach) who were traveling on scheduled flights from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi to Melbourne have tested positive for coronavirus, forcing the organization to isolate the tennis players who made the journey with them, around 50. Among those affected is the Spanish Paula Badosa.

Badosa received a message this Saturday from the organizers of the Open notifying her that she must remain isolated in her hotel for 14 days due to the contagion of one of the passengers on her flight. Together with her training partner, Martha Kostyuk, and the French Alize Cornet, she bitterly complained about the measure in a series of messages on her social networks, all of them deleted shortly after. “All the preparation and hours of hard work have gone overboard … Good way to start a Grand Slam, without preparation”, wrote next to the message of the organization. In this he was provided with a series of medical attention telephones and he was invited to a video call with the tournament's medical services to assess the situation. For now they are not allowed to leave their rooms, not even to open the window.

“In the beginning the rule was that you only had to isolate yourself if the positive was in your section of the plane, not isolate the entire plane. It is not fair to change the rules at the last minute and have to stay in a room without windows or air.” , Badosa also wrote. She assures that there was no contact with the infected, since he was in another part of the ship. “No comment,” Kostyuk tweeted for his part. Both later starred in a direct through Instagram in which they again addressed their concerns. Cornet expressed himself along the same lines: “Soon half of the players will have to isolate themselves. Weeks and weeks of work go to waste for a positive in an airplane that was 3/4 empty. It is crazy.”

His omens were fulfilled and also on the rise. Because Tennis Australia, the local federation, later issued a statement in which it dictated the confinement of all players who have already arrived in the country until Tuesday. As stipulated, they will only be able to leave their accommodations for five hours. From that time, they will dedicate 130 minutes to working out on the track (always with a partner who is staying at the same hotel), 90 minutes to the gym and 60 minutes to their nutritional needs. Badosa was going to play a preparatory tournament in Melbourne from January 31, but now all his shooting is compromised.

The measure will not affect, however, the elite of the tournament, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, etc. They landed in Adelaide, in a special bubble for the best in the ranking, and there they will train normally for an exhibition that will take place on January 29 and for their debut in a first Grand Slam of the year that already generates controversy.