Australian (Open) Tennis and COVID-19

Ridiculous scenes’: Kyrgios weighs in after complaints by Djoker, Tomic’s girlfriend​



Nick Kyrgios has labelled Novak Djokovic a “tool” and said Bernard Tomic’s girlfriend Vanessa Sierra has “no perspective” after their objections to being forced to complete 14 days of hotel quarantine ahead of the Australian Open.

Dozens of tennis stars stuck in hotel rooms ahead of the Australian Open were told Monday they would get no “special treatment” to leave their rooms to train, despite complaints from a couple of players.

In a video, Sierra also complained about the food that’d been provided, as well as other hardships, bemoaning the lack of access to a professional hairdresser.

“This is the worst part of quarantine: I don’t wash my own hair. I’ve never washed my own hair. It’s just not something that I do. I normally have hairdressers that do it twice a week for me, so this is the situation that we’re dealing with,” Sierra said.

 
Nick Kyrgios has labelled Novak Djokovic a “tool” and said Bernard Tomic’s girlfriend Vanessa Sierra has “no perspective” after their objections to being forced to complete 14 days of hotel quarantine ahead of the Australian Open.

Its a very strange world where Kyrgios says something of merit.

____________

The Australian Open CEO is quoted in the Oz this morning as saying:

“We have had over 1200 tests, six positive cases, one being airline staff on 17 flights coming into Australia over the course of the last five days. So those are low numbers. Obviously there was going to be an expectation to have several positive cases. But now we’re in a position where they’re in lockdown.”

Six cases?
 
Really don't care for Australian Open this year with COVID situation.

Is it just me that every time I see AO I automatically think Adelaide Oval, then have to correct myself for Australian Open?
For Footy fans... I did think that way too at times to be honest :)
 
Well Australia better hopes that Covid-19 situation is finished by 2022, as they will be hosting the Women's World Cup in 2023!
 
And now there is a great divide between the players in Melbourne and Adelaide, although why they get to use the gym in Adelaide has not been mentioned here before.

"American reporter Jon Wertheim reported on Twitter that “fortunate players” in Adelaide had been “encouraged” to stop uploading social media posts as it had “inflamed tensions”.

Tennis writer Ben Rothenberg added players had been instructed to avoid posting practice images to social media, “lest the jealousy of the locked-down seed even more unrest”.

Austrian doubles specialist Philipp Oswald, who’s in a two-week quarantine in Melbourne, on the weekend told Tennisnet that Adelaide-based players were receiving several advantages.

“First, players were allowed to take a lot more staff with them,” Oswald said.

“They also have a gym in their hotel. So they don’t have to do their fitness exercises during the five-hour period (when they are allowed outside their rooms).

“You only have the five hours to play tennis. There was a huge discussion and the other players were also upset. It’s not apples and apples here, but apples and pears – and I caught the sour lemon.”
 
Well Australia better hopes that Covid-19 situation is finished by 2022, as they will be hosting the Women's World Cup in 2023!
I hope you are correct but the world is basically on fire atm with the virus
 
I hope you are correct but the world is basically on fire atm with the virus

It will be interesting on how Tokyo 2021 Olympics will be run, as well as Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 and Men's World Cup 2022 at Qatar will be conducted.
 
It will be interesting on how Tokyo 2021 Olympics will be run, as well as Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 and Men's World Cup 2022 at Qatar will be conducted.
With Tokyo 2021, the cases in Japan is insane with daily record highs as of now... especially in Tokyo
 
Its a very strange world where Kyrgios says something of merit.

____________

The Australian Open CEO is quoted in the Oz this morning as saying:

“We have had over 1200 tests, six positive cases, one being airline staff on 17 flights coming into Australia over the course of the last five days. So those are low numbers. Obviously there was going to be an expectation to have several positive cases. But now we’re in a position where they’re in lockdown.”

Six cases?
Yes the world really has been turned upside down when Kyrgios is the voice of reason.
 
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So maybe it's just a case that he really dislikes Djokovic?

Or maybe he really does see Djokovic as being the tool he is and is the only one with the guts to call him out. Ben Rothenberg has a good tennis podcast and he did an interview with Nick some time ago. It was actually quite interesting to listen to, gave me a better understanding of Nick. Djokovic is just presenting these demands because he's trying to get back into being president of the ATP players council, trying to buy favors. Djokovic is totally tone deaf, demanding pay increases for the players when the world is burning.
 
Andrews is now saying the positive AO cases are shedding. Hope this doesnt result in eased restrictions for the people on those flights.

If a non-tennis player, non-celebrity arrived and tested positive, I doubt the health team would work so hard to find a loophole to declare it shedding. The reality is that regular person would be in medi hotel for 14 days regardless.
 
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Or maybe he really does see Djokovic as being the tool he is and is the only one with the guts to call him out. Ben Rothenberg has a good tennis podcast and he did an interview with Nick some time ago. It was actually quite interesting to listen to, gave me a better understanding of Nick. Djokovic is just presenting these demands because he's trying to get back into being president of the ATP players council, trying to buy favors. Djokovic is totally tone deaf, demanding pay increases for the players when the world is burning.
Well we agree he’s a tool but isn’t it a stretch to think that Kyrgios recognizes that?
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Andrews is now saying the positive AO cases are shedding. Hope this doesnt result in eased restrictions for the people on those flights.

If a non-tennis player, non-celebrity player arrived and tested positive, I doubt the health team would work so hard to find a loophole to decalre it shedding. The reality is that regualr person would be in medi hotel for 14 days regardless.
Maybe they have antibodies but if they were negative prior to the flight well, who knows.
 
Andrews is now saying the positive AO cases are shedding. Hope this doesnt result in eased restrictions for the people on those flights.

If a non-tennis player, non-celebrity arrived and tested positive, I doubt the health team would work so hard to find a loophole to declare it shedding. The reality is that regular person would be in medi hotel for 14 days regardless.


I believe he indicated that there are likely to be viral shedding and that the heath officials would report on the actual status of this later today.

You also seem to have an extraordinaly low opinion of health professionals in that you actually believe that they are looking for "loopholes".


I do not believe that your comment is at all reflective of the practice used by VicDHHS with respect to cases that have been investigated as potential viral shedding cases.

Throughout the pandemic VicDHHS has monitored all cases which may be viral shedding. When they come up they are reported on in the daily Vic DHHS report.

They even have a specific expert committee that reviews all such cases. Most likely they will reviewing the AO latest such cases, just as they have in the past.

As Sutton has previously stated such viral shedding cases are not at all unusual. Givn this cohort are all from overseas it is probably not at all surprising that it will have in it people who have had Covid 19, but who have recovered.

As to restrictions levels that would be up to the health officials to decide on. Some of the past cases reviewed in the past have been patients returning for ongoing treatment including cancer patients and so the expert committee deciding on whether they should be deemed as possibly, or probably infectious or not., is most important in managing their care and treatment plus risk to other patients and healthworkers.in

Such cases the past are treated as positive cases, unless their status is changed.

With viral shedding cases in HQ Dr Chant recently provided an explanation on how isolation and quarantine worked and why there was a maximum period to it so that such viral shedding cases were not unfairly held in isolation longer than they needed to be. She also explained why the the isolation period was increased by 4 days due to the more infectious strains.

If the expert committee is satisfied that a case is viral shedding and that the person is not infectious then then they are released from isolation.

In the case of the AO my understanding is that they will have to serve the 14 quarantine period even if it is a viral shedding determination, but that it may then free them and everyone else on their flight to to train for 5 hours outside. That is of course as long as there are no positive cases on their flight.


What is viral shedding?

A person with coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected cells in their body which release the virus into the environment. This process – viral shedding – occurs when someone ‘sheds’ coronavirus (COVID-19) by breathing, sneezing or coughing, or through their faeces and urine.

After recovering from coronavirus (COVID-19), some people can have non-infectious fragments of the virus left in their bodies for some time. These fragments may still return a positive result in a test for the virus, although this result may be weak and prompt further testing to confirm they are no longer infectious (not an active or new case).


ie This was not an AO case and is reflective of what occurs in Victoria with respect to viral shedding investigations.

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