Sometimes it’s hard to remember everything that was experienced in the world in relation to COVID-19 and you lose perspective on how much progress has been made in a short time. Proof of this is the meteoric evolution of the treatment of the pandemic in the first Grand Slam of the year. While in 2021 they competed under a strict bubble that has become one of the great organizational challenges in the history of the sport, last year they kicked Novak Djokovic for not being vaccinated and, just a year later, the Open Australia 2023 announced through Craig Tileythat infected tennis players will not be forced to isolate themselves or abandon the tournament, but will be able to compete, provided they are in a position to do so, as revealed in The age.
“We have made this clear to both the athletes and our 12,000+ employees. We recommend anyone who is unwell and has severe COVID symptoms to reduce their social contact and stay at home, but we assume there may be tennis players competing with COVID-19 because not we force no one to report PCR test results,” warned the head of Tennis Australiawhich has influenced the importance they continue to give to the virus since the tournament, with a doctor specializing in it, such as Karen Holzerwhich will be the one that monitors everything that happens within the tournament trying to avoid massive infections that could create problems.
Tiley stressed there will be tennis players infected with COVID-19 competing at the 2023 Australian Open
In Australia, the federal government is currently recommending that anyone feeling unwell get tested and, if positive, self-isolate for five days. The permissiveness of Open Australia 2023 It has raised blisters in some sectors of the country, especially the health sector, as they consider it dangerous to loosen the measures so much when China has just opened its borders and new variants more resistant to the vaccine could arrive. In any case, whether or not to withdraw from the tournament if you have COVID-19 will always be a personal decision for the tennis player, who will have to balance sporting ambition and health. Without going any further, similar situations were experienced at Wimbledon 2022 as men like Bautista, Berrettini or Cilic tested positive in various PCR tests and were forced to withdraw from the tournament.
