Stefanos Tsitsipas did not want to reveal wether he had been vaccinated.Credit:AP
Tennis Australia is likely to again stage Australian Open men’s and women’s qualifying events in the Middle East,negating some quarantine hurdles for players who will head Down Under.
There was widespread upheaval of last summer’s Australian tennis schedule due to the pandemic,including the bold move of taking men’s qualifying to Doha and the women’s event to Dubai.
The decision to move qualifying offshore,ahead of the rescheduled major at Melbourne Park in February,meant some locally based players trying to secure main draw spots hit the road not long after Christmas.
Similarly,players who didn’t qualify for the Open avoided travel to Australia and the mandatory 14 days of hotel quarantine.
Tennis Australia is expected to soon finalise qualifying arrangements,potentially again in Qatar and the UAE.
The ongoing difficulties of quarantine arrangements for jet-setting tennis players was highlighted this week whenAustralia’s squad for next month’s finals of the Billie Jean King Cup was named and Ashleigh Barty was not in the line-up.
World No.1 Barty is back in Australia after six months on the road,a successful foray overseas that included winning the country’s first Wimbledon singles title in nearly 20 years.