The second day of the Australian Open preview had a history beyond tennis, one of those events that causes the coronavirus pandemic, which affects everything and everyone. Denis Kudla and Eliot Benchetrit were playing their first round match when the American's coach told him in the middle of the game that he had tested positive in the last test they had given him. The chair umpire told him that he had to retire at the next half-time, as the norm dictates, but the match was 6-4 and 5-3 in favor of the affected party, who won the ninth game of the second round and therefore the match. In that way, the two of them were eliminated, the Frenchman who has been competing since this year under the Moroccan flag for defeat and the American because he cannot continue playing because he is infected. Surreal.
There is only one beneficiary of this situation, the Australian Sweeny, who was invited to qualifying and is already in the third round without playing, a single victory from the final draw of the first Grand Slam of the year. Kudla, resigned, will have to stay in Doha in quarantine, while Benchetrit has to wait in case they consider that having been in contact, although not directly, with the winner of the match he also has to isolate himself. After his defeat, Eliot reflected: “What would have happened if I had won the game and went 5-4, the victory would have been mine.” And it is that in that way, Kudla should have retired and would have lost. In addition, in France they do not understand how it is possible that the tennis player played while awaiting a PCR test. Benchetrit himself says it: “The concept of a test is to have the information beforehand so as not to endanger the linesman, the opponent or simply all the people that the player can meet before or after his match. There are also players who are waiting for a loss to play, who made the trip for nothing. The table is truncated, there will be a player in the third round who has played only one game, that is also the problem “.
This is weird
Elliot Benchetrit, who lost to Denis Kudla 6-4 6-3 in the AO qualifying R1, says that news that Kudla tested positive to COVID broke out at 5-3 in the second set …
… and Benchetrit was told later that if he had won the game for 5-4, he would have been through? pic.twitter.com/Dw4vRlPdTt
– Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) January 11, 2021
At a press conference, Benchetrit explained that he did not believe that Kudla had come to Doha already infected and held the employees of the hotel where the players are staying as responsible. “We use the service elevators for the staff, not to cross customers. And quite a few players suspect that hotel staff, who are not tested as regularly as we are, are the cause of contagion for some players. That is why more and more they test positive. Before arriving in Doha, each player had to do a test in their country and we also did a second one when we got there. For Kudla and the others, it was the third, so it is almost certain that he did not test positive before arriving here and that he was infected in Doha. ” Kudla's is not the first coronavirus casualty. Francisco Cerundolo will not be able to play his match in the second round of qualifying against Mario Vilella, though the Argentine at least did not find out in the middle of a game.