Players isolated for 14 days from their arrival in Melbourne begin to have freedom to move.
Nadal will play his first game of the year against Thiem on Friday at an exhibition in Adelaide.
The tennis players who must participate in the Australian Open they have started get out of COVID-19 quarantine this Thursday after spending two weeks strictly confined in the security bubble set up in Melbourne by the health authorities of the state of Victoria.
The first group among the 960 players, coaches and officials who isolated themselves in three Melbourne hotels were able to leave from 6 pm local time (0700 GMT), and will progressively do so until Sunday, depending on their arrival in Australia. Isolated players in the state of South Australia, among which are Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams, would also be released just before the start of Friday’s tournament, in which Nadal (09.30 am in Spain), will play his first game of the season against the Austrian Dominic Thiem.
Freedom of movement
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After this harsh confinement, the players, coaches, referees and staff of the Australian Open they can move freely by surrounding cities and regions as long as they comply with local social distancing restrictions. Unlike the United States and European countries, which are struggling to contain the virus, Australia has not had a case of community transmission for 11 days in a row and residents have regained most of their pre-COVID freedoms.
Of all the people confined in Melbourne, five active cases of coronavirus remain, which will need to spend more time in quarantine depending on when they tested positive. Among them are Paula Badosa and his current coach Javier Marti. The Catalan tennis player, world number 67, revealed that she had contracted COVID seven days after being in quarantine and was transferred to a medicalized hotel so she will have to spend even more isolated days, without being able to prepare to play the Australian Open.
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