Melbourne(Agencies):Tennis
Australia will take "a fair few learnings" from the abandoned Adria
Tour, a senior TA official told Reuters on Wednesday, after the exhibition
series ended abruptly amid a slew of COVID-19 infections to players and staff.
World number one Novak
Djokovic confirmed he had contracted COVID-19 on Tuesday, becoming the fourth
player infected during the Balkan series, which featured heaving crowds and
players partying without social distancing.
"There were a fair few
learnings that have come out of that (Adria Tour)," TA's Chief Operating
Officer Tom Larner said.
"And whilst, certainly
the whole event was actually really well-intentioned in terms of raising money
for charity, the execution was clearly not great, as were the processes in
place."
The U.S. Open is the next
Grand Slam on the calendar, to be held as scheduled from Aug. 31 in New York,
with no crowds and under strict biosecurity protocols.
Australia, with 7,500
infections and 103 deaths, has been relatively successful in containing
COVID-19 but fears of a second wave are growing with several clusters breaking
out across Melbourne, the Australian Open's home city.
Professional tennis returns in
Australia this weekend with the A$450,000 ($311,000) UTR Pro Series and TA are
taking no chances. The series will be held at closed venues and players
interaction will be limited, measures that could be in place at Melbourne Park
in January if necessary.
"I think it will be great
preparation for us and the playing group," Larner said of planning for the
series.
"We obviously knew, as
the government indicated, that there’s a risk of the virus flaring up again in
Australia.
"We’ve been working with
our chief medical officer Carolyn Broderick in the development of our
biosecurity plan ... how we keep players safe and how we ensure there’s minimal
cross-over or interaction."
Social restrictions have eased
in Australia but Victoria has reimposed some after the COVID-19 spike in
Melbourne.
Sports events in Victoria
remain closed to the public but other states with lower infection rates are
allowed to have crowds of up to 20,000 attend venues.
Larner said Australian Open
organisers had no scenario planning which involved moving the Grand Slam or
other warmup events to other parts of the country to reduce COVID-19 risks or
give fans access to tennis.
He added that organisers were
confident they could allow fans to safely attend the Australian Open even without
COVID-19 being eradicated in Melbourne so long as their movement and spacing
could be controlled effectively.
On the players' side TA have
had positive feedback, Larner said.
"With some doubt around
the back end of the season, we’ve had a lot of players talk to us about coming
out to Australia early in December or even November to actually go through
whatever quarantining is required at that point of time," he said.
"What we’ll see,
hopefully, is actually really strong player fields leading into the Australian
Open."
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