Just like that, we have pretty much the whole contingent of players arrived into both Melbourne and Adelaide to prepare for the Australian Open starting on the 8th of February.

Did they arrive seamlessly and without any drama? no… The main points from the arrivals over the last few days are

• Those who arrived into Adelaide had a smooth arrival with no COVID cases.
• Three flights which arrived into Melbourne had COVID cases on them.
• Over 70 players are in hard isolation for 14 days meaning they cannot leave the hotel room.
• There has been a bit of player unrest due to those in Victoria feeling that those in Adelaide were given more favorable quarantine conditions… ie being able to take more of their entourage and having a gym onsite in the hotel, meaning they have more time to train on the courts. Naomi Osaka took down a post with her entourage due to some backlash.
• There have been some players in hard isolation who said that the rules changed when they landed in Australia and they were under the understanding that if someone got covid on the plane in a different section to them, that they would not have to hard isolate.
• Novak requested to Craig Tiley 6 different demands for those in hard lockdown and all of them were refused by the Victorian health department.
• Andy Murry tested positive before departing and will most likely miss the tournament. Madison Keys tested positive and is not going to play.

If we learned anything from 2020, it is that we should always expect the unexpected. Most players as well as the Australian Open organisers would have thought that the chance of having someone arrive to Australia with a positive covid result would have been very minimal considering all of the measures put into place. Unfortunately this virus is still a bit of an unknown and pops up when we least expect it. The players in hard isolation will come out of it just before the pre tournament to the Australian Open and will have a chance to get in some match practice there.

Lets all hope that the mental toughness that the players display on the court can translate through to their hotel rooms while they are in isolation and that they come out of it as even more mentally tough.

No doubt the Aussie Tennis season will have a few more suprises as it plays out. Lets just hope that most of the suprises happen on the court.