Australian Open officials rule out any change in the best-of-five set format for men’s singles matches at the season-opening major as three more COVID-19 cases were reported among the international arrivals for the tournament.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic stands on the balcony at his accommodation in Adelaide, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley defended Djokovic for appealing to Australian Open organizers to ease restrictions so players could move to private residences with tennis courts.
A Tennis Australia spokeswoman declined to provide the AP with a list of the 72 players, but many have made their status known via posts on social media. “If you’ve got say 30 people who are deemed a close contact because they’ve been on a plane with a case, and the case is no longer an active case but a historic shedding, well that would release those people from that hard lockdown,” Andrews said.
Tiley, appearing on Nine Network television on Tuesday, rejected calls from some men’s players to reduce Australian Open matches to best-of-three sets instead of best of five.