The Aussie Open Quarantine Experience Or A Jail With WIFI

Nirmal Sawlani
The Aussie Open Quarantine Experience Or A Jail With WIFI

The Aussie Open Quarantine Experience Or A Jail With WIFI

Spanish player Roberto Bautista Agut has termed the Aussie quarantine experience a “jail but with Wifi” before apologising for his comments.

2021 Australian Open Quarantine Formula

Each player flying into Australia aboard one of the assigned fifteen chartered flights bringing in all the people involved in the slam would have to be in quarantine for fourteen days despite having a negative test before boarding. Players are permitted five hours of freedom per day for training.

Despite those stringent measures, at least ten people (including coaches, players, staff etc), spread across three flights, tested positive once they landed in Australian. As a result, all 72 people aboard those 3 chartered flights were put into a full quarantine, and they were denied the 5 training hours also.

The anxieties of competing in a Grand Slam just a few days after the stringent quarantine, coupled with the fact that some players get to practice 5 hours a day and some don’t has caused resentment among some players.

Amid all this, positive mindedness has prevailed with some players as they have found a way to get the best out of whatever they have in the room—be it hitting against the wall, mattresses or curtains.

  • 2021 Australian Open Quanratine Formula

For those 72 players who are in the stringest form of quarantine, a knock on the room door usually means either a RT-PCR test or a delivery of food or some other essential.

The Difference Between a Bio Bubble and Quarantine

The days building into the 2021 Australian Open, scheduled for February 8, has presented a peculiar situation for the world’s tennis pros, a fourteen-day hard quarantine period that had quite a few players expressing their displeasure. The 2021 Australian Open is unlike the prior 2 Grand Slams which were also held in this Pandemic era, New York (US Open) and Paris (French Open). Those 2 grand slams of 2020 had bio bubbles, one where after a negative test and certain hours of isolation, players could step out of their rooms and head to the courts to practice. Those were bubbles, on the contrary the 2021 Australian Open has what can be called a proper quarantine.

Sources: HindustanTimes

Hashtags: #Quarantine #BioBubble #AustralianOpen

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