‘Finally free’: Midnight practice as locked down stars trickle out
Once released from the confinement of their hotel rooms – their place to eat, sleep, read, exercise and ponder their place in the world for the past two weeks – some of the world’s best tennis players haven’t wasted a minute of their new-found freedom.
With only days to prepare for a swag of lead-in tournaments at Melbourne Park ahead of the Australian Open starting on Monday week, one player in particular headed straight to the practice court for a midnight training session.
The last of the 72 players forced into “hard lockdown” will be leaving their hotel rooms at midnight on Saturday.
Great Britain’s Heather Watson, the world No.58 who made light of her hard lockdown by organising her own ‘quarantine triathlon’ in the confines of her room, declared she was “FINALLY FREE” at 12.54am.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori, set to compete at the ATP Cup men’s teams event on Wednesday, simply checked in to a new hotel, to ensure he was away from one of the three inner-city hotels used for the Open’s quarantine program and considered “red zones” for another day or two.
TA boss Craig Tiley has reiterated that those players will be given “priority” with scheduling and access to training facilities in coming days, conceding that preparation would not be “perfectly ideal” for them.
“There have been a lot of questions about a ‘fair’ playing field, some players have had to quarantine, some have not,” Tiley said.
“But everyone realised, they knew coming in, two weeks of quarantine and two hours a day to practice.
“We’ve given nine days when coming out of quarantine to when they’ll really need to be playing.
“It’s not going to be perfectly ideal, but it’s enough time to be as ready as you possibly can be. No different to inclement weather or someone being a bit sick and having to take a few days off.”
Melbourne Park will host up to six different tournaments concurrently next week but tennis fans starved of action got their first taste of the Australian summer on Friday when some of the world’s best – including Ashleigh Barty in her first match in 11 months – played in an exhibition event at Adelaide’s Memorial Drive.
What took the attention of the world, however, was the sight of a large number of fans in the stands, sitting in close proximity to each other, and illustrating how Australia is now living its “new normal” with COVID-19.
Scott Spits is a sports reporter for The Age
Ashleigh McMillan is a breaking news reporter at The Age. Got a story? Email me at a.mcmillan@theage.com.au