Melbourne: Thursday’s matches at Australian Open warm-up events in Melbourne Park have been cancelled after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive to COVID-19.
No matches were played on Thursday in the Melbourne Summer Series and ATP Cup, while up to 600 players and staff were required to isolate until they returned a negative test result.
Several locations across the city of Melbourne were named as potential transmission sites with authorities acting on the assumption that other people had been infected.
Tennis officials late on Wednesday night issued a statement about lead-up events for the Australian Open, amid fear of further spread of the virus.
“We will work with everyone involved to facilitate testing as quickly as possible,” Tennis Australia, organisers of the February 8-21 Open, said.
“There’s a number of — about 500 or 600 people — that are either players and officials and others who are casual contacts,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Wednesday.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he expects the Australian Open will go ahead, despite the new local case connected to the tournament’s hotel quarantine site.
It was not immediately clear which players could have been casual contacts of the worker.
An update on the match schedule for Friday will be announced later on Thursday.
