No play, but plenty of tests for players at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Players were isolating and getting tested for COVID-19 instead of playing tuneup tournaments four days before the Australian Open as concern grew over the impact on the year’s first tennis major.

All competition at six tournaments scheduled for Thursday was called off overnight and 520 people who flew to Melbourne for the Australian Open were ordered to isolate in their accommodation and get tested after a man who worked at one of the quarantine hotels until last Friday tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Australian Open is scheduled to begin Monday, and preparations have already been disruptive and chaotic. All players and their entourages and everyone else flew into Australia for the tournament had to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine. Of those, 72 players were forced into hard lockdown after passengers on their charter flights later returned positive tests for the virus.

Anyone connected with the tournament and who quarantined at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Melbourne were deemed to be casual contacts of the 26-year-old infected man and were undergoing testing at a dedicated facility.

Allen Cheng, Victoria state's deputy chief health officer, said authorities were being extra cautious.

“We think the risk to other guests at the hotel, so tennis players and their accompanying staff, is relatively low because they were in the rooms at the time as opposed to staff who were outside the rooms," Cheng told a news conference Thursday. “"So we’re testing them to be sure, and it’s precautionary.”

Cheng said six people in the Grand Hyatt during the quarantine period for the Australian Open had tested positive and were transferred to a medical facility, and it was likely the man — a resident support officer — was infected there.

.

..