'99.9 percent of players are absolutely happy' - Aus Open director Tiley

More than a thousand players and officials who went into a two-week quarantine are set to be released by midnight Saturday ahead of the Australian Open, says tournament director Craig Tiley in Melbourne on Saturday. Players and officials started their quarantine on 14th of January when the first of the 17 chartered flights landed in Melbourne and Adelaide.

Three of those charters contained players or entourages with COVID-19, meaning that 72 players had to go into hard quarantine with no opportunity to practice. Other players not in hard quarantine were allowed out of their rooms for up to five hours a day to train.

Tiley said the players who were in hard lockdown had been given priority with their schedules and access to training facilities. He said with all players having at least nine days between quarantine and the start of the Open, the tournament would be as fair as it could be.

“There have been a lot of questions about a fair playing field - some players have had to quarantine, some have not,” Tiley said.

We’ve given nine days when coming out of quarantine to when they’ll really need to be playing. It’s not going to be perfectly ideal, but it’s enough time to be as ready as you possibly can be. No different to inclement weather or someone being a bit sick and having to take a few days off.