Javier Frana
02/06/2021 18:50
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 02/06/2021 18:50
Professional tennis continues a very tough fight against Covid-19.
And he does it by agreeing to modify some historical customs, running weeks, removing tournaments and accumulating others.
But also determined and convinced that
he will not lower his blinds
until the world finds immunity from this unforgiving rival.
The Australian Open, however, is experiencing its most difficult moments.
The history has been so long and so extensive that it could not be summarized in a brief synthesis.
It is that the Australian government, determined to maintain and preserve the country free from Covid, has had the clear decision that the event would not become a threat to a people who, with a lot of sacrifice and effort, had managed to eradicate from their territory to this virus that affects the entire planet.
It was something very precious to the people.
And that led the organizers to have a very tough list of tasks to complete so that the event could take place.
Among them, the 14 days of mandatory quarantine for all players who participate in the tournament.
A determination that forced the classification to be made outside of Australia.
Is that for logistical reasons all had to enter on the same date.
To achieve this, it was necessary to hire planes and private flights from different parts of the world.
A bubble was also built which, unlike the US Open and the French Open, was made much more difficult to meet due to government impositions.
The Rod Laver Arena, the main stage of the Australian Open.
Photo: Reuters
But if the Australian Open was always characterized in something, it was by innovation, by encouraging change and, in this case, that spirit led the organizers to dare to take on this challenge with a mettle and nerves of steel.
Obviously, things happened that did not sit well with the players.
There was no information until the end of last year, they had no news of what was going to happen, it was not known how they were going to travel, if the tournament was going to be played, how they had to do it.
The point is that, progressively and on the hour, the information of all the requirements to which the players had to submit began to appear and it was also known that they had to sign a consent.
I assure you that they spent hours reading, filling out and signing papers and forms to present not only to Tennis Australia, but also to the government and its Ministry of Health.
From there, the quarantines that at times seemed more like health issues than sports, pushed players to also submit to a very special situation.Preparing for such an important event in some cases meant having to be locked up for 14 days, something that It was super contradictory because the players, at first, did not understand.
But when they saw the complexity of the situation and listened to the Australian people who let them know that they had gone through very difficult times and that they were not willing to lose everything they had achieved for a game or a tennis tournament, the tennis players were accepting and understanding that what the organization was doing was really something miraculous.
The Australian Open is about to begin, perhaps, in its most difficult edition.
But, on the other hand, what is being lived is still minute by minute, because the alarms of a possible positive could lead the tournament to be paralyzed and even suspended based on the rules of the Australian state that were very clear.
This means that everyone is now with an anxiety, a tension that, incidentally, will have to see how they are going to do precisely to have their best performance.
Let us remember that the world of sport is watching, the Tokyo Olympics are watching and everyone is waiting for this tournament, at least, to come to an end.
All that said, there will be tennis in Melbourne, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Dominic Thiem, Michael Zverev, Argentines Diego Schwartzman, Guido Pella and Federico Coria will be playing, among others.
God willing, there will be tennis.