With very strict protocols, tennis begins in Australia | newspaper

After 2020 the most complex year for the tennis world, Australia decided to implement a plan to conduct its usual tournaments. That’s why he took action that not all players decided to accompany. Roger Federer, without going any further, did not accept the conditions imposed by the organization and decided not to play on Australian soil.

In short, the Australian Tennis Federation, together with the national government, have put together a plan for athletes to enter the country. Since Australia currently has completely closed borders, the protocol consisted of arriving at least 15 days before the start of the tournaments, for which a series of charter flights were organized. One of the big problems with this case was that on three of the flights that arrived in Australia, positive cases were recorded, and therefore the government decided that all plane passengers should be subject to very strict quarantine, every one in their hotel room. This included more than 70 players, including Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas.

After all these measures are overcome, the tennis players are ready to start playing. There will be three ATP events ahead of the Australian Open: the ATP Cup, Great Ocean Road, and the Murray River Open; On the WTA side, three tournaments will also be staged: Yarra Valley Classic, Gippsland Trophy and Grampians Trophy.

Our compatriot will play Spaniard Pablo Andijar in the first round of the Great Ocean Road. The game will start today, February 1, at 10:00 PM in our hours, and the next afternoon in Australia.

This will be the fourth meeting between the two teams, with a 2-1 advantage for Uruguay, who is currently ranked 70 in the world. The winner of this match will face the winner between Dutchman Robin Haas and Belgium’s Kemer Kobegans. It is not certain that you will know how the quarantine affected Cuevas, because on a physical level he was not allowed out for training during that time.

Given that six tournaments will be played simultaneously, there are more than 80 matches scheduled today and there will be many more players who will be on the field. Among them is number one Novak Djokovic, representing Serbia in the ATP Cup. And Ashley Party in Yara Valley Classic. They will play Denis Shapovalov from Canada and Anna Bogdan from Romania, respectively.

Raphael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Diego Schwartzman and Rublev will all play in the ATP Cup representing their countries; Kenin, Svitolina, Pleskova and Muguruza, among others, represent women’s tennis.

Back at the distant beginning of the year, two tournaments were played. One of them was Delray Beach, in the US, where Uruguayan Ariel Behar and Ecuadorian Gonzalo Escobar became doubles champions, thus adding their first ATP trophy – they’ve already won eight Challenge Level titles since 2019-.