Australian Open crowd caps revealed as players celebrate freedom from quarantine

After spending at least two weeks mostly shut up in hotel rooms, the international players made to quarantine ahead of the Australia Open have taken to social media as they celebrated their newfound freedom.

As the players are finally being released from their hotels, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer on Saturday gave approval for between 25,000 to 30,000 people a day to attend the event in Melbourne next month.

British tennis player Heather Watson wasted no time getting back on the court after being given permission to leave her hotel, posting a video of her practising at Rod Laver Arena at 12:54am on Saturday.

“FINALLY FREE from 15 days in strict quarantine and of course my first stop is Rod Laver Arena for a midnight practice!” she said on Twitter.

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She followed the tweet up with a photo of her lying on the court: “I don’t feel like spending another night in a hotel room so I think I might just sleep here tonight.”

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Other players such as Italy’s Fabio Fognini and the UK’s Johanna Konta also shared their joy on Twitter as they took to the streets of Melbourne.

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Crowds at Australian Open will create ‘an incredible atmosphere’

At a press conference at Melbourne Park on Saturday morning, Victorian Minister for Sport Martin Pakula announced the Australian Open’s COVID-safe plan would allow a daily crowd capacity of 30,000 for first eight days of the tournament and then 25,000 per day from the start of the quarter-finals.

“That means on Rod Laver Arena, as we get to the end of the tournament, we’ll have an incredible atmosphere, not that different to the atmosphere we’ve seen in all the opens in years past,” Mr Pakula said.

He said a total of 390,000 people would attend over the course of the event — about half the average attendance in recent years.

“It will not be the same as the last few years, but it will be the most significant international event with crowds that the world has seen for many, many months,” he said.

That was a testament to the hard work of Tennis Australia and also of Victorians in reducing the spread of the coronavirus in the state, he said.

Quarantine interruption to training like ‘inclement weather’

Nearly 1,000 Australian Open players and officials have undertaken hotel quarantine over the past fortnight with the last being released this weekend.

Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley said he hoped the event would send a signal to the rest of the world that Melbourne was “the world’s capital of sport and entertainment”.

Mr Tiley said that “99.9 per cent” of the Australian Open players were happy to be out of quarantine and appreciative of the efforts taken to protect them and the community from the coronavirus.

“I think we all underestimated the amount of work and effort and intensity that went into these two weeks,” he said.

“But we’ve come out of it with a great success.”

Mr Tiley acknowledged that the players were getting varying levels of opportunity to practise ahead of the tournament but said everyone was aware of the quarantine arrangements.

They also had another nine days between leaving quarantine before they had to play in the tournament, he added.

“That period of time, while it may in an athlete’s mind not be perfectly ideal, it is enough of a period of time to get as ready as you possibly can be,” he said.

“But it would be no different to inclement weather stopping training or to someone being a bit sick and having to take a few days out.”

He added that the 72 players in “hard quarantine” who did not have an opportunity to train outside would receive priority.

“So they’re going to have priority on schedule, priority on practice courts, priority on use of physiotherapists, use of the training rooms,” he said.

In a statement, the State Government said “rigorous” infection control and prevention measures would be enforced.