The Australian Open is due to start on February 8, but by then the list of absentees should gradually grow. After Roger Federer, American John Isner, the 25th player in the world, announced on Monday that he would not participate in the first Grand Slam of the season due to restrictions linked to Covid-19.
“At this point in my career and in my life, I have always had the opportunity to be able to travel with my family. And that will not be the case to go to Melbourne this year,” Isner said after his loss to his compatriot Sebastian Korda in the quarterfinals of the Delray Beach Open tournament in Florida.
“I’m staying home,” says Isner. “At this stage of my career and in my life I’ve always had visions of being able to travel with my family. … It really was just a situation where I didn’t want to be away from my family for that long.”
— Tennis Majors (@Tennis_Majors) January 12, 2021
–
“I didn’t want to be away from my family for so long”
As a reminder, the organizers of the Australian Open have imposed a strict quarantine period of 14 days to be observed for players coming from abroad who wish to participate in the tournament from February 8. In other words, a player going to the final will have to stay locked up four weeks in a row in a hotel room. With the right to come out only to train and play.
“I can understand that, but it was really just a situation where I didn’t want to be away from my family for so long. So I decided to stay home,” said Isner, 35 and father of two children, for whom this decision “was not easy to take”.
Last week, the head of player relations for Tennis Australia indicated that Federer had thrown in the towel for similar reasons, even though those around the Swiss spoke of insufficient recovery after two arthroscopies of the knee. “The problem is that Mirka (Federer’s wife, editor’s note) and her children could not leave the room, said Andre Sa. They should stay in the room for 14 days (before the tournament). Mirka did not approve.”
–
–
