All play at Melbourne Park scheduled for Thursday February 4th has been suspended.
An employee at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, one of the hotels in Melbourne providing quarantine to professional tennis players, has tested positive for COVID-19. This means that play for the six tournaments below cannot take place until further notice.
- The ATP Cup.
- Two ATP 250 tournaments: the Great Ocean Road Open and the Murray River Open.
- Three WTA 500 tournaments: the Yarra Valley Classic, the Gippsland Trophy and the Grampians Trophy.
Official Statement from Tennis Australia
Tennis Australia posted the following statement on Twitter:
“Health Authorities have advised us that a Hotel Quarantine worker has tested positive for COVID-19.
Those associated with the AO who quarantined at the hotel now need to be tested and isolate until they receive a negative test result.
We will work with everyone involved to facilitate testing as quickly as possible.
There will be no matches at Melbourne Park on Thursday. An update on the schedule for Friday will be announced later today.”
Future of Australian Open in question
The Department of Health for Victoria had received 13,675 test results. However, they have received this one positive test local to Victoria.
They have now issued a tweet urging anyone that has visited several sites on the Grand Hyatt Hotel’s premises to immediately go into isolation for 14 days.
It is still to be confirmed whether this will affect any professional players, beyond the initial one-day postponement of the “tune-up” events. How these developments will continue to affect the ongoing tournaments or the Australian Open is currently uncertain. The Australian Open is currently scheduled to begin Monday, February 8th, with the last of the current tournaments wrapping up on Sunday, February 7th.
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We will continue to update this story as it develops.
Main photo from Getty.
