Is this now the Australian Open cluster?
Artem Sitak, who was on the coronga’s flight, gave a different perspective than many tennis players are talking about. He said that Tennis Australia made a call with the players a while ago and many chose not to participate.In that call he said that TA had warned that there was a possibility that everyone on the flight could be isolated-Aliny Calejon twitter
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The notice as tweeted by French player Alexandre Muller who was aboard the Qatar Airways flight from Doha.
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This is not going over very well on social media.
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Reported on the latest flight from Doha:
The Herald Sun understands Western Australian teenager Tristan Schoolkate was on the flight, along with France’s Benoit Paire, Japan’s Taro Daniel and American Michael Mmoh.
Yeah, Novak (and other players who are whining) need to read the room…
There’s a fair bit of discontent (some of it understandable though some of it is frankly hysterical) in Victoria about the Australian Open going ahead at this time as it is. As such, people’s tolerance for tennis players complaining about having to do what other people arriving in Australia have to do is almost non-existent.
Of course improvements can and should be made where it’s possible and safe to do so (eg; providing more training equipment for players to use in their hotel room). However, the players should be thankful that a Grand Slam tournament is able to still go ahead in the current circumstances.
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Test the players before they aboard the flight to Australia. And continue to do so moving on…
Limit the crowd to 25% or 50% if deemed safe by the government.
Why are we bothering? If we’re going to strand thousands of Australians overseas why on earth are we jetting in tennis stars during the middle of a pandemic? With new strains on the loose too. Talk about tone deaf.
Just put a fork in the Open for 2021 and come back next year.
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What a headache for channel9. 
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Already happening.
Already at 50% and split into three zones based around the stadium courts.
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Will the Tokyo Olympics get this much media attention when an athlete test positive upon arrival? Even with the Australian Grand Prix in November. It seems the knifes are out just for the AO. I’m sure the Olympics will have a lot more cases than AO’s five cases currently.
The AO Players knew the risks and were told they will be deemed a close contact to a positive cases. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. No one is above quarantine requirements.
How is this AO cluster (if we can call that) any different to the Black Rock cluster or Northern Suburbs cluster etc by isolating close contacts? I for one are glad that Tennis Australia/Australian Open and Vic Government authorities are taking this seriously. I feel a lot more safer at the end of the day.
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The Victorian Government always said that they expect there to be positive cases and it’s right that they aren’t taking any risks with people on those flights. The media are just having a field day here focusing on the whingeing of players. They will find any angle to make it seem like the Australian Open is in turmoil. You would think that most flights should be here by now (as pre-season tournaments start in 2 weeks) so if only 3/15 flights had positive cases then that’s not actually too bad, it could have been worse.
I do feel for the players on those flights that can’t train but at the end of the day we are in a pandemic and these things are going to happen. They are being paid a lot to be here so need to stop complaining. Nobody is forcing them to be here and they will all still have at least a week before the Open to get some training in.
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Im gonna throw something at my tv if Ch9 does any slowmo inspirational packages about sportsmen overcoming obstacles and tackling challenges after all this whinging.
ive seen a few interviews (eg last light on the project with Pat Cash) where interviewers let them get away with “players are used to these bubbles and they are responsible” really?! I’m sure serbia would beg to differ, the players do not have a good record and shouldn’t be trusted. Even if they did, those countries are covid disasters, following their rules is no benchmark.
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I think it’s time for the World Health Organization to implement some international guidelines for each nation to follow in regards to controlling coronavirus.
Otherwise how do we expect any international sporting events to go ahead? Whether it’s the Australian Open, Cricket World Cup, Tokyo Olympics etc., they will all be in trouble if coronavirus cases keep popping up.
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To be fair, that wasn’t an ATP/WTA sanctioned event. Since then - bar Sam Querrey - everything has been relatively okay.
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the victorian Cho says to tennis players: “Everyone finds quarantine tough, but Victorians have copped this as much as anyone in the world… Victorians have done it tough and they don’t expect special rules for anyone else”-Andrew Lund twitter
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sooooo…in other words, suck it up princess?
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If this backfires and the UK Strain comes out in the community, this won’t look good for Daniel Andrews
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