Covid-19 forced cancellation of the Wimbledon tennis tournament last year. The priority now is to save the first grand slam event of the year, the Australian Open in Melbourne from February 8, from a similar fate.
The means is social distancing and the quarantining of players if necessary, and the bottom line is no exceptions. Imagine the reaction of tennis stars used to receiving special treatment such as chauffeured cars when officials herded more than 70 of them into strict hotel room quarantine for 14 days.
This is after they arrived on chartered flights carrying just one or two people who tested positive.
In the words of four-time grand slam doubles champion and former Australian Open boss Paul McNamee, many players would have felt a form of culture shock.
After all, what country considers lockdowns or limits internal border crossings in response to such a small number of infections? Perhaps we in Hong Kong would empathise, with mandatory testing of everyone in a building after one positive test.
Video of frustrated and angry players claiming they were not properly warned about quarantining, and trying to practise by hitting tennis balls around their hotel rooms, went around the globe.
World No 1 Novak Djokovic, who is quarantining in Adelaide with access to practice courts, presented a list of 10 demands for changes to quarantine, including leave to practise on the private tennis courts of Melbourne’s wealthy. The government rejected all 10.
“It is a shock to many players that we [Australia] are so pedantic about [anti-infection measures]. They are not used to that,” McNamee said. Current tournament chief Craig Tiley insisted players had been alerted about the risk of quarantine, but some may have not taken it seriously.
Several players accused officials of being out of touch, but eventually most came to terms with the argument for quarantining, even if it costs them precious practice time.
Tiley is not the first to face a list of demands. McNamee said star players even sought to negotiate times and courts for matches. “I liken it to show business – it’s an entertainment industry,” he said.
It has taken the pandemic to bring some of them down to earth.
There are still many in the wider community who resist or resent masks and quarantining with the attitude, “it [Covid-19] can’t happen to me”. But everyone is equal before the coronavirus.