Tennis Australia released Friday's official order of play for the Melbourne Summer Series to accredited media, after the cancellation this Thursday of the whole day due to the positive of an employee of the Grand Hyatt hotel, where most of the players stayed.
Therefore, tennis returns with 58 matches between the two ATP 250 tournaments and the three WTA 500, plus 9 from the third day of the ATP Cup Group stage., competition in which Spain, again without Nadal, will face Greece at 10:00 (00:00 this morning on the Peninsula) at the John Cain Arena, although in principle it was scheduled to be at 07:30 Spanish time. In addition, the Argentina-Japan of Group D that was behind and is already inconsequential because Russia is classified, goes to Saturday. In this way, the afternoon is left free in that stadium that has a retractable roof and is covered, in case the rain forces the suspension of some games on the outer courts and they move there.
As AS has learned, due to the accumulation of matches and the probability that it will rain in the capital of the state of Victoria, the women's matches will be decided with a super tiebreaker to 10 points if they reach the third set and there will be no modification in the men's .
Double round and Alcaraz-Vilella duel if they win in the second round
With the new schedule, Garbiñe Muguruza will play in the Yarra Valley Classic quarterfinals against Sofía Kenin, in the second shift at Margaret Court Arena, at around 01:30 a.m.; Carlos Alcaraz will face Brazilian Thiago Monteiro on track 10 at 00:30 in the second round of the Great Ocean Road Open; and another Spaniard, Mario Vilella, will meet Australian Jordan Thompson, also at 00:30 on the 1573 Arena court. The winners of these two matches will meet later, because there is no choice but to join rounds on the same day after the delay of the start of the men's tournaments and the postponement of the fourth day. So there could be a quarterfinal Navy duel. From this programming it can be deduced that all the Spanish players that appear in it tested negative for COVID. AS knew first-hand Pablo Carreño's relief and also the fact that everyone who passed the medical test was able to train later, in the afternoon.
Melbourne Summer Series order of play (Australian time, -10 in Spain).
Order of play of the ATP Cup (Australian time, -10 in Spain).