Australian Open faces up to two-week delay, Murray backs compulsory vaccination

"I still think it’s much more likely that it will be a shorter rather than longer delay. I don’t want to unduly repeat myself but these are very complex negotiations.

"I'm still confident we'll have an Australian Open, and we'll have one in the early part of the year."

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, host broadcaster Nine - owner of this masthead - will want the start date to be as closed to January 18 as possible, to maximise summer ratings and avoid rearranging its schedule.

"There’s a number of potential dates on the table. I’ve seen reports that suggest that it’s likely to be delayed by a week or two. I think that’s still most likely,” Mr Pakula said. "But it’s not the only option. As you know, the French Open was delayed by many months and Wimbledon didn’t occur at all.

"I still think it's much more likely that it will be a shorter [delay] rather than a longer one."

Ideally, international players would want to be able to train and play in a bubble, meaning they could complete quarantine while preparing for the grand slam. But Pakula wouldn't be drawn into specifics.

“The exact nature of that quarantine, whether or not it’s their own bubble, or something more common, is still part of those conversations,” Mr Pakula said. “The quarantine requirements will be those that are ultimately agreed with the public health [department] and then it will be a matter for the ATP and the WTA about whether or not they are acceptable.”

Officials conducted some 10,000 coronavirus tests before and during the successfully-staged US Open in New York in September, with Frenchman Benoit Paire the only player to return a positive to COVID-19.

“An extremely rigorous testing regime will apply to the players both before they leave the port that they come in from and when they arrive,” Mr Pakula said. “And then I imagine consistently through the time they’re in their [biosecure] bubble."

Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters he would not risk the health of Victorians, who have fought so hard to stop the spread of the virus.

“The rest of the world is on fire, so there will be quarantine for anyone coming to our city or state,” Mr Andrews said on Sunrise on Wednesday.

“You’ve got 250,000 cases a day in the United States, Europe is not much better, many parts of Asia are really struggling. As important as a tennis tournament is, we’re not going to jeopardise our coronavirus status by anything other than the highest standards.”

Meanwhile, three-time major winner Murray has thrown his support behind tennis players being subject to compulsory COVID-19 vaccination “for the good of the sport”.

However he said any vaccination needed to be safe and protected by clinical trials.

Asked by reporters whether players needed to be vaccinated in order to compete at tournaments, Murray said: “Good question. Yeah, I think probably should be the case.

“I would hope that all the players would be willing to do that for the good of the sport – providing everything has proved to be safe, clinical trials and everything have been done and there are not any significant side effects."

World No.1 Novak Djokovic is one player who has openly voiced his concerns about compulsory vaccination, especially in order to be able to travel freely.

“I am no expert, but I do want to have an option to choose what’s best for my body,” Djokovic said in a statement reported by The New York Times. “I am keeping an open mind, and I’ll continue to research on this topic because it is important and it will affect all of us.”

Murray indicated that players would be supportive of vaccination if it resulted in a return to normal. “So I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the ATP and the ITF decide what their position is going to be on that. But I’m confident that players would be into it if it meant the tour going back to normality.”