"In quarantine, you have very ugly times, but you don't have to dramatize"

After two weeks locked within four walls, yesterday, finally, the bulk of the tennis players and the teams that landed on the 14th in Melbourne fulfilled the quarantine required by the Australian government to be able to participate in the Australian Open that starts on 8 February.

But not all of them.

The 72 who arrived in the country on one of the three

- in which at least one passenger tested positive for covid-19 - still could not enjoy the airs of freedom.

Case of, for example, the Spanish

or Mario Vilella;

even less Paula Badosa and her coach, Javier Martí, trapped by the jaws of the British strain and transferred to a specific center designated by the authorities;

Nor the Argentine Diego Dinomo, coach of the absent Fernando Verdasco, and also of the present Barbora Strycova.

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“Now they are going to give us a program with the time window to know when you can go abroad.

They have made us a last test, and the moment you give negative they grant you the permit ”, he tells this newspaper after dark in the city.

He has passed the last PCR and is officially

.

That is to say, from now on you will be able to travel through the city and, above all, start preparing with your player a tournament whose anteroom has been peppered with complaints.

While some denounced the differences with respect to the elite Adelaide bubble, where Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and a few other privileged people are concentrated, other professionals have criticized the organization for various kinds of issues.

Yulia Putintseva, for example, used the nets to record a couple of rodents investigating in her room;

Others pointed to the menu that was delivered to their rooms, although they forgot to mention the $ 100 a day that they have been granted to design it;

with good sense, Victoria Azarenka invited to relativize;

and a few, not a few, regretted through social networks that the Australian federation has not fulfilled what it promised.

“I'm from the most screwed up flight, the one from Abu Dhabi.

I have not been able to leave my room for a single second or take a single breath of air.

I haven't seen a human in two weeks!

I just became a father and as soon as I got here, the absolute confinement… ”, Dinomo explains.

“The truth is that at times it happens very badly, because you don't have the slightest physical contact.

The luckiest ones had the rooms wall to wall, with a door in the middle, and thus some teams [coach, physio and player] have been able to see each other.

But Barbora was at the end of the corridor, so nothing, "he continues while adding when asked about the repeated complaints of these two weeks:" There are very ugly moments, but you don't have to dramatize either.

Not everything is rosy, but in some cases we have been a bit selfish.

What could that rule have better communicated to the 72 affected?

Sure, but it is not the main question.

What is really important are those who have been infected.

One too fat is falling out there with the damn virus.

I understand the frustration and that if you lack a bike or some tapes, you can claim them, of course, but not some

complaints

”.

“In the requirements that we had to come there were many variables, so things could arise from anywhere.

Here, in this situation, what the government says is above what they can tell us from the tournament, and there is no more.

The situation is very dynamic and is decided practically day by day, and we were warned that everything can change in a matter of hours.

Now we have to prepare as best we can against the clock ”, closes the Argentine while Craig Tiley (the director of the Open) and his team continue to work hard to make the event possible in very difficult circumstances, following the line of a model country in the containment of the virus.

One week of shooting

Meanwhile, this weekend there will be an exhibition in Adelaide.

Novak Djokovic will open the poster at dawn (against Yannik Sinner, Nadal's partner in training during these days) and around 9.30, Spanish time, the Spaniard will face Dominic Thiem;

Ashleigh Barty and Simona Halep will also parade, and previously both Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka as well as Venus and Irina-Camelia Begu.

In the complex journey to the

, several tournaments will also be played with the aim that the tennis players roll and arrive in minimum condition on day 8.

Many have not been able to exercise, or have done it in a bad way and improvising solutions in the rooms.

While those who did not have setbacks were able to at least go to the Melbourne Park slopes and avoid the quarantine for five hours a day, the 72 affected have not been able to step on the training area and yesterday they were informed that they should be one more day (15) at their hotels, since the departure will be staggered.

As this newspaper has learned, to somehow compensate for the situation, the tournament informed them that it will keep the club's facilities open for 24 hours so that they can train at any time slot.