Australian Open qualifying full; 15 charters to reach

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES File photograph of Novak Djokovic.
Nearly 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) from Melbourne, the qualifying match has been accomplished for the Australian Open, with 16 males and 16 girls set to hitch the singles important draw starting Feb. 8.
The qualifiers be part of the group of gamers who’ll start arriving Thursday on 15 constitution flight and instantly go right into a 14-day quarantine beneath strict laws in Australia for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the protocols, all gamers needed to to return a unfavourable check earlier than boarding their flights to Australia, and could be subjected to additional testing on arrival and isolation till the outcomes are obtained.
But there’s already been an exception, with American participant Tennys Sandgren reportedly allowed on one of many Australia-bound flights regardless of not too long ago testing constructive for coronavirus.
Sandgren examined constructive to COVID-19 on Monday, after initially testing constructive in late November, and was initially barred from the flight containing worldwide gamers out of Los Angeles.
However, he was then allowed to hitch the delayed flight. He posted on social media to say he wasn’t contagious.
“My two tests were less than 8 weeks apart. I was sick in November, totally healthy now,” the No. 50-ranked Sandgren tweeted. “There’s not a single documented case where I would be contagious at this point. Totally recovered!”
A quarterfinalist at Melbourne Park in 2018 and 2020, Sandgren was supported by Tennis Australia, who reportedly mentioned they adopted Victorian state authorities tips in permitting him on to the flight.
“Some people who have recovered from COVID-19 and who are non-infectious can continue to shed the virus for several months,” Tennis Australia mentioned, in accordance with Australian Associated Press. “Victorian Government public health experts assess each case based on additional detailed medical records to ensure they are not infectious before checking into the charter flights.”

The season’s first main has already been delayed by three weeks due to restrictions in place for the pandemic, and the boys’s and girls’s qualifying tournaments — in Doha, Qatar and in Dubai — have been held exterior of Australia for the primary time.
The girls qualifiers embody two-time Australian Open and Roland Garros doubles champion Timea Babos of Hungary and British participant Francesca Jones, who has a uncommon genetic situation.
Jones has ectrodactyly ectodermal dysplasia, which suggests she was born with three fingers and a thumb on every hand, three toes on her proper foot and 4 toes on her left.
On the boys’s aspect, the qualifiers embody 17-year-old ATP newcomer of the 12 months, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.
Six girls and 6 males may also journey to Australia as fortunate losers and bear obligatory quarantine like the remainder of the worldwide gamers, hoping to get a spot in the principle draw as cowl for accidents or withdrawals. There are 104 direct entries based mostly on rankings for the boys’s and girls’s singles important draw, plus wild-card entries and the qualifiers.
The 15 flights shall be at not more than 25% capability, and can arrive over a 36-hour interval ending early Saturday.
Once a unfavourable consequence has been returned, gamers can prepare inside a strictly supervised atmosphere for five-hours per day, and gamers and their groups shall be examined day-after-day throughout quarantine.
The Australian Open draw shall be held on Feb. 4, 4 days forward of the beginning of the principle match, which ends Feb. 21 with the boys’s singles last.
Novak Djokovic is the defending males’s champion and Sofia Kenin is the ladies’s defending champion.
Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams shall be amongst a bunch of gamers concerned in an exhibition occasion in Adelaide, South Australia state, on Jan. 29. All different tournaments shall be in Melbourne, together with the 12-team ATP Cup beginning Feb. 1 and two WTA occasions within the week main into the Australian Open.