5 week Melbourne pocket for tennis season

Constant · Lower Club Player

5 week Melbourne pocket for tennis season

Madadman · Masters Series Champion

Will be interesting how they work this. Assuming Australian open has both main draw and qualifying draw that's 256 players in each the female and male side. Before you add some on for just double players. Considering normal draws(atp) are 32 for main and 16 for singles. They will need to somehow work a few tournaments in to get this to work. I think they'd need at least 6 tournaments for both atp and wta for each player to get at least one entry.

Have feeling there might be some low ranked aussies making up the qualifying draw this year. Maybe a lucky break for the AussieBrit Brydan Klein.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

It is looking like a logistical nightmare for the players according to Stuart Fraser

twitter.com/stu_fraser/status/1328629855777415168

16k for a one way ticket from London to Melbourne next week.

Madadman · Masters Series Champion

Indeed just seen that tweet myself. I guess they will need to try and arrange a few hub pick ups and maybe arrange for Qantas to put on some flights. Maybe Dubai for European players and LA for the Americas?

Can easily see this not happening.

the addict · Tennis legend

Didn't the organisers pay some of the costs last year ?

flamingowings · All-time great

Bob in Spain wrote:
It is looking like a logistical nightmare for the players according to Stuart Fraser

twitter.com/stu_fraser/status/1328629855777415168

16k for a one way ticket from London to Melbourne next week.

Well *actual* normal people are trying to get home as well...never mind sports people.

flamingowings · All-time great

Breaking News: The Australian Government is not allowing tennis players to enter the country in December.

What does this mean for the #AutralianOpen, and all the events prior? @paul_annacone, Jim Courier and @Steve_Weissman discuss on #TCLive https://t.co/tPoe44TDv0 pic.twitter.com/aDKmHO96Yx
Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) November 17, 2020

Madadman · Masters Series Champion

With the latest news that no players can arrive until January at the earliest I cant see this happening. If it does I can see many players not going which will make a mockery of the ranking points given out.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Jan 1 fly, quarantine to jan 15 if its 14 days. Aus Open due to start 17th?

Not going to happen. Cant see it.

Unless they can push it back to march?

PaulM · Tennis legend

I don't think this is going to work. It strikes me if they insist on going ahead they should do the same as US Open with no qualies, half doubles field, and then fund two WTA 125ks (one indoor hard in Europe one outdoor hard in the States) with 64 fields and increased doubles fields to cover the players who would have been in qualies.

Given the huge restrictions on travel for ordinary Aussies, including people effectively locked out the country still, I'm not sure opening it up for all these players and their teams is going to go down well? And the mechanics of getting out there look pretty much impossible cost wise other than for the very top players?

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

PaulM wrote:
I don't think this is going to work. It strikes me if they insist on going ahead they should do the same as US Open with no qualies, half doubles field, and then fund two WTA 125ks (one indoor hard in Europe one outdoor hard in the States) with 64 fields and increased doubles fields to cover the players who would have been in qualies.

Given the huge restrictions on travel for ordinary Aussies, including people effectively locked out the country still, I'm not sure opening it up for all these players and their teams is going to go down well? And the mechanics of getting out there look pretty much impossible cost wise other than for the very top players?

Agreed - there is also no word more widely from ATP and WTA on schedules in 2021, so not sure how it all plays out from there. I suggested March above, but Indian Wells and Miami will no doubt have a say on that. I suspect the window for an Aus Open is tight and that they should be less ambitious around the wider schedule, maybe a warm up event like Cinci was in the US and then into the Aus Open, perhaps a week later than planned?

And then home and onwards...

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Being reported that Melbourne will start receiving international flights again on 7th Dec but with very low capacity.

twitter.com/AusBT/status/1329638743779655681

flamingowings · All-time great

Bob in Spain wrote:
Being reported that Melbourne will start receiving international flights again on 7th Dec but with very low capacity.

twitter.com/AusBT/status/1329638743779655681

These should be for people stranded outside of OZ, residents etc not sports people.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

flamingowings wrote:
Bob in Spain wrote:
Being reported that Melbourne will start receiving international flights again on 7th Dec but with very low capacity.

twitter.com/AusBT/status/1329638743779655681

These should be for people stranded outside of OZ, residents etc not sports people.

Yes. I agree they should get 1st priority and at only 160 people per day, this is not going to clear the backlog very quickly. It appears that at the moment, incoming travelers have to quarantine in a hotel and this daily limit is calculated on the hotel capacity. I mean, 160 passengers is less than half of one full flight per day.

The only real hope here is the word "initially" so maybe they will steadily increase this capacity but it is still going to be difficult to get all the players and their entourages into Melbourne by the end of the year.

flamingowings · All-time great

AO juniors cancelled.