It was a startling moment that was not lost on non-Australian watchers, who have otherwise witnessed the nation's stringent approach to coronavirus management during the duration of the tournament.<\/p>\n
A government decision to place 72 players in hard quarantine due to the presence of COVID-19 on certain charter flights sparked unrest in the playing ranks. Tournament director Craig Tiley revealed that he'd copped "significant abuse" while communicating with players, despite one – Paula Badosa – testing positive for COVID-19 after the lockdown call.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
UK tennis correspondent Stuart Fraser, of The Times, blasted both the booing fans and the disgruntled players.<\/p>\n
"The Australian Open has remarkably somehow come to a successful conclusion," Fraser wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n
"But between players giving tournament director Craig Tiley 'significant abuse'and spectators booing the mention of vaccines at the trophy ceremony, it really has brought out some morons."<\/p>\n
Veteran UK tennis writer Simon Cambers agreed with Fraser's terminology.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/twitter.com\/scambers73\/status\/1363441288620748801?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n Metro tennis writer George Bellshaw branded the reaction to Hrdlicka's speech "bonkers", while The Daily Mail's Mike Dickson called the booing "awkward".<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/BellshawGeorge\/status\/1363442338203389954?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/Mike_Dickson_DM\/status\/1363441853845110784?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n New York Times tennis writer Ben Rothenberg said that the booing of vaccine sadly summed up a bizarre summer in Australia.<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenRothenberg\/status\/1363444875576958980?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n Australian tennis great Rennae Stubbs, now a US-based analyst for ESPN, branded the booing fans "disgraceful".<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/rennaestubbs\/status\/1363442451134865409?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n Press Association tennis correspondent Eleanor Crooks noted that the Victorian Government was also loudly booed by fans.<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/EleanorcrooksPA\/status\/1363441476282298371?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n Hrdlicka's comment on the vaccine was seemingly inoffensive.<\/p>\n "It's been a time of heartfelt challenge. It's been a time of deep loss and extraordinary sacrifice for everyone," Hrdlicka said.<\/p>\n "With vaccinations on the way, rolling out in many countries around the world, it's now a time for optimism and hope for the future."<\/p>\n Yet the crowd was unruly from that point on in her speech and eventually the TA president and chairwoman lost patience and said: "When you're finished \u2026"<\/p>\n Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who won his ninth title at the Grand Slam on Sunday, voiced opposition to mandatory vaccination last year as the pandemic unfolded.<\/p>\n There were many vocal Djokovic fans in the stands for the final, though it is unclear exactly who was booing Hrdlicka's vaccination remark.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" International tennis media were left shocked by "morons" at the Australian Open final booing the mention of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. Tennis Australia president Jayne Hrdlicka […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37240,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37238\/revisions\/37240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n