By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday January 9, 2021, 2020
A total of 66 Grand Slam titles will take part in "A Day at the Drive" at Adelaide on January 29.
Photo Source: Mark Peterson / Corleve
Tennis’ top stars will join forces in Adelaide in late January to take part in “A Day at the Drive”, an exhibition event that Tennis Australia deems the “official curtain raiser to the Australian summer of tennis in 2021.”
Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Naomi Osaka, Dominic Thiem and Simona Halep are the six players that are signed on for the event, and they will join a group of 50 that will quarantine at Adelaide instead of Melbourne.
The one-off event will be held at Memorial Drive Tennis Centre in Adelaide on Friday 29 January and will feature a total of eight players—two more will be named in due course, according to Tennis Australia.
Instead of joining the group of over 1,000 players that are scheduled to quarantine in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open, the players participating will go directly to Adelaide, and begin their quarantine on January 14.
Australian Open CEO Craig Tiley assured the public that the players will adhere to the same stringent quarantine requirements in an interview with Tennis Channel on Thursday.
“The training conditions will be the same,” Tiley said.
But some players are already skeptical about the surprise wrinkle to the quarantine plan.
“This announcement for the top 3s, it's a little fallen from the sky, and it's weird, to put it mildly,” Jérémy Chardy of France told L’équipe. “They will even be able to benefit from a gym at the hotel and will be able to do their exercises which will not count towards the five hour quota. Everyone can go out. They will almost be able to live normally. Already they have a lot of privileges ... If they can do everything more than you, it will not be the same preparation. And that's weird for a sport where we're all supposed to be on the same footing.”
It’s understandable for Tennis Australia, which was under pressure after one of its lodging partners in Melbourne got cold feet. One also has to take into consideration the fact that Tennis Australia will take a loss running this year’s event, and the newly scheduled, star-studded event, will certainly help from a pocketbook perspective.
Following the Australian Open, Memorial Drive will also host the Adelaide International WTA 500 event from 22 to 27 February 2021.