If the vagueness still reigns, due to the endless coronavirus pandemic, the fog is dissipating a little at the start of the season.
Australia, which notably hosts the first Grand Slam of the year in January, imposes a quarantine of two weeks for anyone who wishes to visit the country.
Melbourne, the city where the tournament takes place each year, having been the epicenter of the second wave of the pandemic in Australia, recently emerged from several months of containment.
Dan Andrews, Prime Minister of the State of Victoria, recently informed players and ATP that they could arrive in Australia only on January 8 to begin their quarantine there with the possibility of training in a "bubble". ".
As was the case during the last US Open, the qualifying tournament could however go by the wayside ... or not.
Marca
assures this Monday that the qualifications for the first big meeting of the season could take place not in Melbourne but in Asia or the Middle East.
Thus, Dubai, Doha or Singapore would today be the cities envisaged by the Australian Federation to host the matches in early January.
Which would obviously be a first.
Australian Open set to start on February 1
This decision would reduce the number of players in the bubble ... And these qualifying matches would take place several days before the start of the big table.
Because the Spanish daily confirms the information of the Melbourne newspaper
The Age
which recently affirmed that the tournament should be postponed to February 1, instead of the period set from January 18 to 31.
And in this context of bubble in Melbourne, the ATP Cup, novelty of the year 2020, which was contested in several cities in Australia, should not take place in 2021.
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Regarding the quarantine imposed on players, the former doubles specialist, Todd Woodbridge, was reassuring in statements reported by the site Nine's
TODAY:
“players will have a quarantine of 14 days, like any visitor.
They will be tested very regularly and this is no longer a problem for them because this “routine” has been in place for several months on the circuit.
I am confident and I know that everything will go well because there is today a real experience on the organization of a “bubble” of this dimension.
Players will be able to train, go from the court to their room without taking any risk.
"If it still appears difficult to project, the organization of the Australian Open is starting to take shape ....
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