Craig Tiley isn't Dr. Doolittle though the Australia Open CEO received some bizarre animal requests from players during quarantine.
Tiley told ABC's Offsiders some players asked for animal companions while serving 14-day Coronavirus quarantines in their Melbourne hotel rooms.
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“The most bizarre request was for a kitten in the lockdown room,” Tiley said on Sunday morning. “And that wasn’t once, that was several times.
“But then we explained that actually there is a correlation between the coronavirus and kittens and that kind of request went away. Puppies, there had been some for dogs, and someone was joking with us about if there is a way to get some animals that are indigenous to Australia in there as well."
Perhaps some players were seeking in-house hunters.
Yulia Putintseva, one of 72 players confined to hard quarantine in her Melbourne hotel room, complained to hotel staff about a mouse in her room.
Putintseva reports she was transferred to a new room only to find a family of mice in the welcoming party.
While the tournament did not provide puppies, kittens or koalas to anyone serving AO quarantine, Tiley joked about his animal wish list.
“There were a few times I wouldn’t mind putting a boxing kangaroo in there," Tiley said with a smile.
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