By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday January 28, 2021
When Tennys Sandgren found out that many players (including himself, of course) would not be able to leave their 14-day hard quarantine at the expected time, the American voiced his frustration.
“I just found out that we are not going to be able to leave the room until midnight tomorrow,” he said in a self-made video, while riding his stationary bike (see below, embedded in the news footage). “Which will put us at close to 15 days in this room – that’s also another day that we can’t practice."
“My name is Tennis Australia and I’m soooooooo cool,” a visibly frustrated Sandgren concludes.
Many players are eager, of course, to get out of the hotel rooms that they have not been permitted to leave since they arrived in Melbourne, but the government just wants to ensure that everything is done in a safe manner.
If that takes a few extra hours then so be it.
“Players and participants will begin departing from 6PM this evening,” said a spokesperson from Covid-19 Victoria. “With the last departures expected to be completed by Sunday.”
Georgia's Oksana Kalashnikova also voiced her frustration.
But most players remain patient and appreciative of all that Tennis Australia has done for them, in spite of the difficult situation. It's unfortunate for them that the amplified voices of a view does tend to make the whole group appear as tone deaf and entitled.
Tennis Australia is simply being careful to put the proper finishing touches on its quarantine and staggering the departure of the 72 players that have been placed in hard quarantine. Reportedly this was always part of the plan, as planes arrived in Melbourne at staggered time and the Victorian government does not want to take any risk of infectious spread.
“We just received news from health that we are going to be in the room until midnight [Friday],” said ATP player Artem Sitak, who has been one of the many voices of reason on the players' side.
Players will then be allowed to head straight the practice courts for a midnight hit once they get their freedom.
“If I try to take some positives out of it, it’s that for the first time in my life I’ll be practicing at 1 or 2 AM,” said Sitak.
Either way, the end is almost near, and next week one of the craziest weeks in tennis will begin, with six different events held in Melbourne Park. It will be a challenge for those players in hard quarantine to be ready for tour-level tennis so soon after being locked up in their room for two weeks, but this is professional tennis in the age of Covid—never simple, never easy.