With the Australian Open junior event already cancelled, attention has turned to the Grand Slam event with fears that it might be delayed.
Just about a week after reportedly reaching an agreement to play the entire Australian summer—tournaments scheduled for Adelaide, Hobart, Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra—it appears that Victoria is not amenable to allowing players to quarantine in the month of December. While Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and Tennis Australia take time to work out the details of the agreement, it appears that the window for playing the Happy Slam on its scheduled dates might be closing.
“I’m very confident that we will have an Aussie Open in the early part of next year,” said Andrews. “The exact timing of it, the exact arrangments we put in place—they are not settled yet.”
Meanwhile Australian Open CEO has not made an official statement this week.
The tournament’s start date is extra critical because of the number of tournaments slated to begin in early February, not long after the Australian Open’s intended finish date of January 31.