Tennis great Todd Woodbridge has moved to dispel growing concerns among Victorians that the Australian Open could bring a third wave of coronavirus.<\/p>\n
A date is yet to be confirmed for the tournament, which is usually held in late January, with Victoria refusing to budge on a quarantine period for overseas arrivals, and according to Woodbridge, early February looms as a possible start date.<\/p>\n
After being locked down for months, Victoria looks to be fully over the virus having notched up an entire month without a positive case of COVID-19.<\/p>\n
However, Woodbridge suggested that the protocols put in place by Tennis Australia and the health officials should ensure the state remains COVID-free.<\/p>\n
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"There's a lot of concern in Melbourne because we've worked so hard to get this virus under control, that bringing in international players is going to be a worry," he told Nine's TODAY.<\/em><\/p>\n "However, Tennis Australia and the health officials have worked so hard to get the protocols in place.<\/p>\n "When players are coming here, they're going to have to test negative before they get on the plane, they'll have a test as soon as they land and they'll have to test negative to be let out into a bubble.<\/p>\n "There were rumours on radio here that they were going to get a 10-day quarantine, that's not true, they'll have to go through exactly the same as everybody else. Then they'll be put into an opportunity to go from the hotel to a court and then back into their hotel room to be able to get back to their best at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n "It's also worth mentioning to everybody that the players have been doing this all throughout the last few months.<\/p>\n "At the US Open, the first Grand Slam to come back, they did over 10,000 COVID tests within that bubble.<\/p>\n "So players are going to be tested so often and so rigorously that I think we can be really confident that it will be much harder and much stricter than anybody else coming into Australia.<\/p>\n "We've had thousands and thousands of people over the last few months that have been coming in and working properly in every other state around Australia."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n