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      Because of Covid-19, Even Getting to the Australian Open Is a Battle

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBecause of Covid-19, Even Getting to the Australian Open Is a BattlePlayers not only must be quarantined upon arrival, but then they are mostly confined to their rooms.The courts at Melbourne Park will have a limited number of spectators during the Australian Open.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 6, 2021, 6:44 p.m. ETAngelique Kerber was all dressed up with nowhere to go.It was Kerber’s 33rd birthday, and the German tennis player was stuck in a hotel room in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 18 unable to even open the door for more than the time required to grab a bag of food left outside.But rather than mope about her inability to celebrate, or even to practice for the Australian Open because of a strictly enforced two-week quarantine, Kerber decided to make the best of it. So the 2016 Australian Open champion videotaped herself donning a fancy party dress, dipping strawberries in chocolate, opening a bottle of champagne and dancing around the room, all by herself.Because of the pandemic, athletes in Australia and around the world have had to make major adjustments to earn a living. Tennis players, who spend their lives on airplanes and in hotels, are among the most vulnerable.Players, including Angelique Kerber, and staff members were required to spend 14 days in quarantine after they arrived in Australia in accordance with tournament protocols.Credit…Daniel Pockett/Getty Images“These days, traveling is just an absolute nightmare,” said Reilly Opelka who, at 6-foot-11, struggles on long flights during the best of times. “With Covid, tests, quarantining and paperwork, it’s the biggest headache.”A year ago, the Australian Open was hit by the environmental effects of bushfires that ravaged the country. At Melbourne Park, where the tournament is played, haze and smoke from the nearby fires left some players gasping for air during their qualifying matches.If 2020 was jarring, the 2021 Australian Open, postponed by three weeks from its customary summer dates, seems apocalyptic.“Last year feels like 10 years ago,” said Rajeev Ram, who won the Australian Open men’s doubles title last year with Joe Salisbury. “Not only did we have the bushfires last year, but we had our first inklings that the coronavirus was becoming significant because some of our Chinese players weren’t able to go home. That now feels like forever ago.”This year, Ram was confined to his hotel room for 14 days from the moment his chartered flight from Los Angeles landed in Melbourne on Jan. 15. His coach, physiotherapist and Salisbury were just steps away in other single rooms, but physical contact was prohibited.Tennis players and support staff arriving at the Grand Hyatt hotel on Jan. 15.Credit…William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe original plan, as laid out by Tennis Australia, the governing body of the Australian Open, was for everyone associated with the tournament to fly into Melbourne on carefully orchestrated chartered flights from Los Angeles, Miami, Abu Dhabi (where a WTA tournament had just concluded), and Dubai and Doha, both sites of the Australian Open qualifying tournaments.Planes were just 20 percent full to allow for social distancing, and players, coaches and support staff members were tested for Covid-19 before takeoff. Players would quarantine for two weeks, though they were allowed out of their rooms for a total of five hours per day to practice, do physical training and eat at the tournament site.The intent was to keep everyone safe, including Australians, who have endured strict lockdown mandates. With Covid-19 positivity near zero in the country, fans are permitted to attend the Australian Open, though in limited numbers. Tickets are available for one of three zones, each containing one of the show courts, but fans are required to stay within their specific zone for the duration of the session.The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      Sofia Kenin: Moved to Tears, and Victory

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySofia Kenin: Moved to Tears, and VictoryOnce the defending Australian Open champion is on the court, it’s all about “grooving in the game.”Sofia Kenin ended 2020 ranked No. 4 in the world and was named the WTA Player of the Year.Credit…Jonathan DiMaggio/Getty ImagesFeb. 6, 2021, 6:41 p.m. ETSofia Kenin had just beaten Ashleigh Barty, the world No. 1, to reach the final at the Australian Open last January. Still in her tennis clothes and seated on a bench in the locker room next to her friend and doubles partner, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Kenin glanced at her phone and put her hands to her mouth.“Andy Roddick just tweeted. Oh my God, Oh my God,” Kenin said as she read aloud the former world No. 1’s message. “‘This girl has become the goods,’” Roddick wrote, urging her to win the title.“I will,” Kenin yelled into her phone. Then she cried.Kenin, 22, met Roddick when she was a 7-year-old Florida phenomenon playing exhibition matches with the former world No. 1s Jim Courier and Venus and Serena Williams. She told a reporter that she knew how to return Roddick’s 150-plus m.p.h. serve by split-stepping and hitting with a short backswing.Tears have become Kenin’s mantra. She cried from nerves before every match during last year’s Australian Open and then sobbed with joy after she beat Garbiñe Muguruza to win her first major title.She fought back tears of frustration in the middle of her French Open final-round loss to Iga Swiatek and then let them flow as she sat courtside during the trophy presentation.Sofia Kenin after she defeated Garbiñe Muguruza to win the Australian Open last year for her first major title.Credit…Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The New York TimesKenin entered last year’s Australian Open ranked outside the top 10. Helped by a potent backhand down the line, a well-disguised drop shot and an unwavering will to win, she ended the Covid-truncated season ranked No. 4 and was named the WTA Player of the Year.The following conversation has been edited and condensed.What’s with all the tears?I don’t know. I try to handle it. I can’t go on the court crying because then it’s a big advantage for my opponent, so I have to wipe my tears, have a good warm-up, feel the ball and then start grooving in the game. That’s when I forget I was crying and just focus on the points.Do you cry before every match?I did in Australia last year. I wasn’t doing it on purpose, it was just happening. And then, I’m superstitious so I was like, I got to cry. I’m not a good actress.In last year’s final, you were at 2-2 in the third set, down 0-40 on your serve, and you hit five straight winners. How did you do that?Yeah, yeah, I know those points. I just watched them on TV again, and I got a little emotional. Those were really clutch points, probably the best points of my life.Novak Djokovic, your fellow Australian Open defending champion, became an inspiration for you last year. How did he help?I was watching his match, and I messaged him on Instagram. I was hoping he would win so I would have an excuse to congratulate him. Then he was on the practice court next to me the day before the final, and he came up and gave me some advice. He just told me to enjoy the moment and leave it all out there. I think I’m going to ask him how to handle the pressure of being a defending champion. He’s got a lot of experience with that.Not long after you won in Australia, the tour was shut down for five months because of the pandemic. Did that make you angry?It hit me hard because it was supposed to be the best thing that ever happened. Three months of practicing and everything canceled.I wasn’t in a depression, but I was really down. I didn’t want to be on the court. But when we started again, I was super excited to go out and compete, even though it was really unfortunate that there were no fans.Heading into Melbourne, what are you most excited about, and what are you most afraid of?I’m definitely happy that I get to experience being a defending champion. That’s quite special. Then, I’m most afraid to lose and lose early.How are you different from that wide-eyed 7-year-old who wanted to return Roddick’s serve?Well, I won a Slam, and I got to the final of another one. So that’s a big difference.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Ashleigh Barty Seeded First in Australian Open Draw

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAshleigh Barty, Back on the Court, Is Top Seeded at HomeBut Naomi Osaka could face a tough path in the women’s draw at the Australian Open.Ashleigh Barty in a doubles match at the Yarra Valley Classic on Friday.Credit…Jonathan Dimaggio/Getty ImagesFeb. 5, 2021Updated 1:02 p.m. ETTop-ranked Ashleigh Barty once more sits atop the Australian Open women’s singles draw that was made Friday afternoon in Melbourne, and gives her country its best chance to win its home Grand Slam.Barty has held the No. 1 ranking without interruption since September 2019. But that streak, made possible by the WTA Tour keeping 2019 ranking points intact during a season of upheaval, does not quite reveal the reality of her last 12 months.Before this week, Barty had not played a tour match in nearly a year. At last year’s Australian Open, she was seeded No. 1 and lost in a semifinal to the eventual champion, Sofia Kenin. Then, when the coronavirus pandemic disrupted sports, she stayed home in Queensland and remained there even as some tournaments were held in other parts of the world.Barty has looked strong in a warm-up tournament this week at Melbourne Park, reaching the final of the Yarra Valley Classic after a withdrawal from Serena Williams. Still, it is yet to be seen how she will perform during the Grand Slam tournament, which is scheduled to begin Monday, given her limited match preparation.Barty’s path in the women’s singles draw is largely favorable. She opens against 77th-ranked Danka Kovinic. Should Barty reach the semifinals, she could get a rematch against Kenin, who is seeded fourth this year. Kenin, who also reached the finals of the French Open in October, has said she is uneasy about defending a Grand Slam title for the first time.“Obviously very nervous, but I’m going to do my best and we’re going to see how it goes,” Kenin said this week.Kenin received a seemingly comfortable opening match against the 130th-ranked wild-card Maddison Inglis, but could face trouble in the second round, where she would have to face frequent giant-killer Kaia Kanepi or the 2018 U.S. Open semifinalist Anastasija Sevastova.The 2019 Australian Open champion, Naomi Osaka, sits in the bottom half of the draw seeded third, where she landed one of the most brutal opening challenges: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a talented Russian veteran who has reached the quarterfinals each of the last two years in Melbourne.Osaka, who ended last season on an 11-match winning streak after winning the U.S. Open, faces a potentially loaded path to the semifinals after Pavlyuchenkova, including 27th-seeded Ons Jabeur; last year’s runner-up, Garbiñe Muguruza; 2016 champion Angelique Kerber; the 2019 runner-up, Petra Kvitova; the seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, and eighth-seeded Bianca Andreescu, who is playing in her first Grand Slam event since winning the 2019 U.S. Open.Tenth-seeded Serena Williams, who is seeking her 24th Grand Slam title, could await whoever advances from Osaka’s quarter of the draw. Williams opens against the combative Laura Siegemund, but her toughest test might come from the enigmatic player who looms in the fourth round: seventh-seeded Aryna Sabalenka. Despite the pandemic-decimated schedule, Sabalenka has won four WTA titles in the last 12 months, including the final two tournaments of last season and the first of this year. But Sabalenka has not played well at Grand Slam events, only once advancing to even the fourth round in 12 main draw appearances.Whoever advances from Williams’s and Sabalenka’s section very likely has a tough battle on her hands in the quarterfinals as well, with both second-seeded Simona Halep and 15th-seeded Iga Swiatek looming. Swiatek won the French Open in October.On the men’s side of the tournament, the already dim hopes among American players got even dimmer after the draw.With the highest-ranked American man, John Isner, choosing to stay home, 27th-seeded Taylor Fritz is the lone seed from the United States in men’s singles. He could face the next-highest ranked American man, his friend Reilly Opelka, in the second round. But whoever comes out of that part of the draw would most likely run into the buzz saw of Novak Djokovic in the third round.The top-seeded Djokovic, who has won eight Australian Open titles including the last two, opens his tournament against the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, and could face another young American, 2019 quarterfinalist Frances Tiafoe, in the second round.One of Djokovic’s toughest potential tests looms in the fourth round, where he could face the 17th-seeded Stan Wawrinka. Wawrinka is one of only three players to have beaten Djokovic in Melbourne in the last 10 years. He did so in the 2014 quarterfinals en route to winning his first Grand Slam title.Djokovic could face third-seeded Dominic Thiem in the semifinals in what would be a rematch of last year’s final. Second-seeded Rafael Nadal, in his first try at breaking the Grand Slam men’s singles titles record after tying the absent Roger Federer at last year’s French Open, opens his tournament against the 56th-ranked Serbian player, Laslo Djere.Two of Nadal’s most intriguing possible early opponents play each other in the first round: 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur, who is the highest-ranked Australian man, and Tennys Sandgren, the Tennessean who had seven match points against Federer in last year’s quarterfinals but could not convert any of them.Nadal could face the fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev, who is on a 12-match win streak after winning the ATP Finals and Paris Indoors Masters last fall, in the semifinals.The draws on Friday were delayed one day because of problems with the coronavirus. A quarantine worker at one of the hotels where players were staying tested positive, prompting tournament officials to halt activities on Thursday. Instead of a splashy, prime-time ceremony to reveal the first-round pairings, the draws were done in a back room and streamed online.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Tony Trabert, a Two-Time No. 1 in Men’s Tennis, Dies at 90

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTony Trabert, a Two-Time No. 1 in Men’s Tennis, Dies at 90Trabert drew on a powerful serve-and-volley game and an outstanding backhand to win five Grand Slam tournament titles in a single year.Tony Trabert playing against Kurt Nielsen at the Wimbledon final in 1955. Wimbledon was one of five Grand Slam tournaments he won that year.Credit…Associated PressFeb. 4, 2021Updated 6:22 p.m. ETTony Trabert, who won five Grand Slam tournament titles in a single year, 1955 — three in singles and two in doubles — making him the world’s No. 1 men’s player for a second time, died on Wednesday at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He was 90. His death was announced by the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., where he was inducted in 1970.A sturdy 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, Trabert drew on a powerful serve-and-volley game and an outstanding backhand in capturing the 1955 men’s singles at the French, Wimbledon and United States championships and teaming with Vic Seixas to take the men’s doubles at the Australian and French events. He had also been ranked No. 1 in 1953.Only Don Budge, who won all four men’s singles majors in 1938, and Rod Laver, who matched that feat in 1962 and 1969, have exceeded Trabert’s 1955 singles accomplishment, a mark that has been matched by several others.Trabert, who won 10 career Grand Slam tournaments overall — five in singles and five in doubles — was described by the tennis journalist and historian Bud Collins as “the all-American boy from Cincinnati with his ginger crew cut, freckles and uncompromisingly aggressive game.”Trabert played on five Davis Cup teams in the 1950s and was later the captain of five American squads.Tennis was largely an amateur affair in Trabert’s heyday. In October 1955, 13 years before the Open era, when pros could compete against amateurs, Jack Kramer signed Trabert to a contract guaranteeing him $75,000 to join his professional tour; over the years the tour also included stars like Pancho Gonzales, Pancho Segura and the Australians Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad and Frank Sedgman.The United States Davis Cup team, of which Trabert was the captain, after winning the cup in 1979. From left: Vitas Gerulaitis, John McEnroe, Trabert, Stan Smith and Bob Lutz.Credit…Associated Press“I never have — or never would — admit to a weakness, because I don’t think I have a particular weakness,” he told Sports Illustrated in 1955.“I think I can play equally well with any shot,” he continued. “It’s not overconfidence or bragging. I know my capabilities and my limitations. I certainly know that because I’m reasonably big, I can’t be as quick as some of the smaller fellows who run around the court and get a lot of balls back defensively. So, quite simply, my game is that I make up in power what I lack in speed.”He went on to be a tennis commentator for CBS for more than 30 years and was president of the Tennis Hall of Fame from 2001 to 2011.Marion Anthony Trabert was born on Aug. 30, 1930, in Cincinnati, to Arch and Bea Trabert. He began hitting tennis balls at a neighborhood park at age 6. His father, a General Electric sales executive, arranged for him to take lessons from local pros when Tony was 10. Two years later, Bill Talbert, a neighbor 12 years his senior and also a future Hall of Famer, began giving him tips.“I could see in him a duplicate of myself at the same age — an intense desire to be a good player and a willingness to spend the long hours to make the grade,” Talbert wrote in “The Fireside Book of Tennis” (1972, edited by Allison Danzig and Peter Schwed).Trabert won the Ohio scholastic tennis singles title three consecutive years while at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, where he also played basketball.He teamed with Talbert to win the doubles title at the French championship in 1950 and captured the 1951 N.C.A.A. singles tennis title while at the University of Cincinnati.Trabert also played guard for the Bearcats’ basketball team, which went to the National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden in March 1951 (at a time when the tournament carried more prestige than it does today) before losing in the first round.Arantxa Sánchez Vicario of Spain in 2007 at her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, alongside Trabert, who was inducted in 1970.Credit…CJ Gunther/EPA, via ShutterstockHe joined the Navy during the Korean War and served aboard an aircraft carrier.Trabert won the men’s singles at the United States Nationals in 1953 and the French singles in 1954 before his three singles victories at Grand Slam events in 1955.After being defeated by Rosewall in the semifinals of the 1955 Australian singles championships, the first of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments, Trabert won the French championship at Roland Garros, on clay, and then won Wimbledon and the United States Nationals at Forest Hills, both on grass. He did not lose a single set at either of those two tournaments.He also won the 1955 U.S. Indoor and Clay Court titles. In addition to winning the doubles in Paris with Talbert, he won four doubles titles in Grand Slam tournaments with Seixas.Trabert played on America’s Davis Cup teams from 1951 to 1955. He made it to the 1952 event while on a Navy furlough.The United States lost to Australia in the 1951 and 1952 finals, but an especially wrenching defeat came at Melbourne in 1953. The U.S. was leading Australia in the final, 2-1, but Hoad and Rosewall, both in their teens, beat Trabert and Seixas. The Americans did defeat Australia at Sydney in the final the next year.While Trabert was captain of the American squad from 1976 to 1980, he guided two cup winners.He is survived by his wife, Vicki; a son, Mike, and a daughter, Brooke Trabert Dabkowski, from his marriage to Shauna Wood, which ended in divorce; three stepchildren, Valerie Mason and James and Robbie Valenti; 14 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.Looking back on his career, Trabert expressed no regrets about turning pro and disqualifying himself from further Grand Slam events before the arrival of the Open era.“When I won Wimbledon as an amateur, I got a 10-pound certificate, which was worth $27 redeemable at Lilly White’s Sporting Goods store in London,” he told The Florida Times-Union in 2014. “Jack Kramer offered me a guarantee of $75,000 against a percentage of the gate to play on his tour.“I made $125,000 to play 101 matches on five continents over 14 months. People say, ‘Yeah, Tony, but bread and milk was five cents.’ I say, ‘Give me Agassi’s $17 million and I’ll figure out the rest.’” Alex Traub contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      For Melburnians, the Australian Open Tests Anxieties About the Virus

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFor Melburnians, the Australian Open Tests Anxieties About the VirusAustralians have gone to great lengths to control the coronavirus. And some don’t want to throw that away for a tennis tournament.A worker cleaned during a warm-up session at Melbourne Park on Thursday.Credit…David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesFeb. 4, 2021, 1:02 p.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — From the banks of the Yarra River to the vineyards of Mornington Peninsula, the news out of muggy Melbourne Park sent shivers across the state of Victoria.A worker at one of the hotels where players and officials were quarantined ahead of the Australian Open had tested positive for the coronavirus. The announcement, made late Wednesday, carried an irksome echo for Melburnians who have endured three lockdowns, including one that lasted 111 days, to successfully subdue the coronavirus.“There’s no reason for people to panic,” Daniel Andrews, Victoria’s premier, said on Thursday. But in many circles of this city, that button had already been pressed. The first tennis major each year is the crown jewel in this country’s sporting calendar, but even before the positive result snapped the state’s 28-day streak of zero community transmission, many Australians seemed conflicted about going forward with the event.Ian Hickie, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Sydney, said that Australia shut down the country last year — at tremendous cost to the economy and people’s mental health — “so we are spared the physical health disaster of North America and Europe and South America.”To risk giving back those hard-won gains “just doesn’t make sense outside a very narrow business sector,” he said, adding, “I think it would be safe to say most people are furious that it’s gone ahead.”The letters sections of Australia’s newspapers in recent weeks have become a Greek chorus, with readers railing about the hypocrisy of welcoming international visitors while continuing to shut out Australian citizens stuck abroad and about the dissonance of preaching about public health and safety while seeming to prioritize a world showcase event.The tournament had planned to allow up to 30,000 paying fans a day on the grounds, but the positive test prompted some ticket holders to ask for refunds on Twitter. Six men’s and women’s tuneup events at Melbourne Park were suspended Thursday, with matches rescheduled for Friday. The draw for the Australian Open was also postponed by a day to Friday. Craig Tiley, the chief executive of Tennis Australia, remained resolute that the Australian Open would start, as scheduled, on Monday.Craig Tiley spoke at a news conference on Thursday as tune-up events for the Australian Open were suspended for the day.Credit…Tennis Australia, via Associated Press“This is not about no risk,” Tiley said. “There’s no such thing as no risk. There’s always going to be risk. The objective is to minimize it as much as possible.”Restrictions on travel to a nation surrounded by water have helped Australia get and keep the virus largely under control. There were 52 active coronavirus cases in the country as of Thursday and nine people in the hospital. With a population of 25.8 million people — about four million more than live in Florida — Australia has had 28,838 cases and 909 deaths related to the virus.That more than 1,200 visitors associated with the Australian Open, including those from countries where variants of the virus have shown to be more transmissible, were given exceptions to enter the country confounded Hickie. “Our social cohesion and cooperativeness isn’t something that you can buy, and the sense that some people are just more important than others is a very un-Australian concept,” he said.In mid-January, as the players settled into their mandatory 14-day quarantine — some more cheerfully than others — Australians seemed divided. Some were aligned with tennis and government officials who looked at Victoria as a liberator rescuing international sport from the tyranny of the pandemic. Others believed that Australia’s standing as one of the leading countries in containing the virus carried more prestige than its standing as one of tennis’s four Grand Slam host countries.The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      As the Tennis Party in Australia Begins, an Uncertain Year Awaits

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAs the Tennis Party in Australia Begins, an Uncertain Year AwaitsOfficials in Australia moved mountains to make the country’s annual professional tennis swing happen. That will be far more difficult after the tour leaves this isolated, island nation.Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece was in action on Wednesday during his ground stage match against Alex de Minaur of Australia in the ATP Cup in Melbourne, Australia.Credit…Loren Elliott/ReutersFeb. 3, 2021Updated 3:17 p.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — By sheer force of will, professional tennis inched toward normalcy this week, with a flurry of events in a country that has managed to nearly smother the coronavirus.The three tournaments and a men’s team competition called the ATP Cup, in which players compete for their countries, have turned Melbourne Park into a sea of matches with the gates open to spectators. Hundreds of matches were scheduled this week at the tennis complex, which is on the banks of the Yarra River, just a few hundred yards down a hill from this city’s downtown. The smaller events lead into the Australian Open, the centerpiece of the summer tennis season here, which is scheduled to begin on Monday.A stern reminder of the challenge to public health represented by the events came Wednesday when Australian Open organizers said a hotel quarantine worker had tested positive for the virus. That prompted a suspension of play on Thursday and orders for all of those associated with the tennis events at the hotel to isolate in their rooms until they return a negative test.The positive test ended a 28-day run of zero community transmission in the state of Victoria, The Age, a newspaper in Melbourne, reported. The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, was not immediately affected, but the positive test made clear that the event — with all its planning and precaution — could be upended if more people are infected.Before the latest setback, the word “lucky” kept flying out of the mouths of the players — lucky that their sport happens to begin its year in an isolated, island nation that decided months ago that it would do nearly anything it could to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The federal and state governments specially allowed more than a thousand people to travel from overseas for the tournament, requiring them to serve 14 days in varying degrees of lockdown to reduce the risk of bringing Covid-19 back into the community. For the players, that was the ante to compete for more than $80 million in prize money for all the events.And yet the massive effort of holding these competitions has illuminated an unpleasant truth for a sport that normally hopscotches the globe for 11 months each year. No one knows exactly what will happen to professional tennis for the rest of 2021 when the competitions in Australia conclude at the end of the month.The problem is that two of the main ingredients for tennis to be successful are open international borders and large crowds in big cities, neither of which are in abundance at the moment.There are tournaments on the calendar everywhere from the Middle East to South America and Florida, but it’s anyone’s guess how they might take place, what officials in those countries will require of anyone who wants to enter their borders, or whether players will be able to travel freely in and out of their own countries.“Everything is continuously ever-evolving,” Johanna Konta of Britain, a member of the WTA player council, said when asked recently what the rest of the year looked like both for her and her sport. “I don’t know how it will be. I don’t know how the quarantines will be. I don’t know how things will shape up.”With this week’s tuneup events shoehorned into the schedule and moved to Melbourne from their usual locations elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand, attendance has been sparse, but a trickle of spirited fans does stream through the gates each day — especially the native Serbs screaming for Novak Djokovic. A player hits a terrific shot, and a roar echoes through the courts, just as it is supposed to. Players are going through their usual routines of practice sessions, matches and massages, plus meals and coffee dates among locals in the city’s downtown restaurants.Getting to this point took months of negotiations with government officials, tens of millions of dollars, 17 chartered jets to fly the players and other essential tennis workers to the country and the hiring of hundreds of people to manage the two-week quarantine. The payoff comes next week when the tournament will allow up to 30,000 fans a day who will be sectioned off into three zones to limit each person’s exposure to someone who might potentially test positive.Healthcare workers stood at a personal protective equipment station inside one hotel where players were staying.Credit…James Ross/EPA, via Shutterstock“In Europe, it’s going to be I think far more challenging to experience something that we are experiencing here,” said Djokovic, the world No. 1 and the leader of a nascent players’ association. “We might as well enjoy it as much as we can.”As Andrea Gaudenzi, chairman of the Association of Tennis Professionals, put it Tuesday night, “We live in the now.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      Ahead of the Australian Open, 2 Wild Weeks of Practice

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesVaccine InformationTimelineWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Craziest Two Weeks of Tennis Practice EverThe organizers of the Australian Open promised local residents that the tournament would not set off a coronavirus outbreak. Making good on that promise is very complex.Tennis players waiting for transport to practice at the front of the Grand Hyatt Melbourne Hotel on Wednesday. Each player was allowed to train with one other in the first week of preparation for the tournament, with a coach overseeing. Groups of four will be permitted the second week.Credit…Asanka Ratnayake/Getty ImagesJan. 24, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — The intricate ballet begins at sunrise and ends after dark, a complicated series of movements requiring the utmost precision for what has long been a very simple task — getting tennis players to and from the courts so they can practice ahead of a professional tournament.There is a strict routine to enforce social distancing: a series of knocks on hotel doors every five minutes, checking and rechecking that hallways are clear and that people are where they must be, whether that is in a van, or on the court, or the gym, or a dining pod, and then a thorough cleaning of their trail. The whole process, moving every available player to and from training in waves, can last almost 16 hours.Alarms not going off or a little dawdling can cost players their precious daily chance to emerge from their rooms and prepare for the Australian Open, the first major tournament of the year, scheduled to start on Feb. 8.“The amount of planning is amazing,” Kevin Anderson, the veteran South African, said of the regimen, which began early last week, soon after a fleet of players arrived in the country on specially chartered flights. “You don’t see anybody.”This is what happens when you try to bring more than 1,200 people, including hundreds of athletes, from overseas to a country that has largely rid itself of the coronavirus, and that will go to great lengths to assure that it does not return to the community.After months of intense, police-enforced lockdowns throughout the country, Australia has averaged just 11 daily cases the past two weeks. The limited number of travelers allowed in from overseas each day has accounted for most of the positive tests. In other words, in a country of more than 25 million people, community spread is largely nonexistent. The effort to keep things that way, while holding the Open and multiple warm-up events, has been bumpy. Ten people arriving on three of the chartered flights for the events, including one player, have tested positive for the coronavirus.That prompted health officials to order all 72 players on those planes to stay in their hotel rooms for 14 days.One of those 72, Paula Badosa of Spain, tested positive Wednesday, seemingly dashing any hopes that players from those flights who have repeatedly tested negative since landing might be released early from the hard lockdown. Badosa, 23, flew to Australia from Abu Dhabi, on the same flight that transported Bianca Andreescu’s coach, Sylvain Bruneau, who tested positive for the virus shortly after landing in Melbourne. All of the players had expected to be able to spend two hours practicing at a tennis center and 90 minutes in a gym every day during the two weeks leading up to the competitions. After the 72 players learned they were being locked down, organizers faced a mini-rebellion.A hotel quarantine worker in protective equipment directing a van used to transport players and support teams to Melbourne Park for their practice sessions.Credit…Asanka Ratnayake/Getty ImagesMelburnians, who were subject to a strict 111-day lockdown from June to October that closed schools and businesses and prevented them from leaving their homes for more than an hour each day, have reacted angrily. Ticket sales came to a standstill. Politicians denounced the decision to hold the competitions.“We will be in that darkest hour for a while, and then there will be a dawn,” Craig Tiley, chief executive of Tennis Australia, which organizes the Australian Open, said Friday afternoon. “That dawn will start when the events start.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      Margaret Court to Get a Top Australian Honor, Drawing Outrage

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTop Honor for a Tennis Player With Intolerant Views Draws OutrageMargaret Court, an Australian record breaker known for her homophobic comments, is set to receive one of the nation’s highest public service awards.Margaret Court at the Australian Open last year, during a ceremony marking 50 years since she won the Grand Slam.Credit…Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The New York TimesJan. 22, 2021Updated 7:03 a.m. ETMELBOURNE, Australia — Australia has conferred one of its highest civilian honors upon former prime ministers, elite athletes, philanthropists, actors and academics for “the highest degree in service to Australia or humanity at large.”But when news broke on Friday that the public service award would be handed next week to the tennis legend Margaret Court, whose sporting legacy has been marred by her vocal homophobia and opposition to same-sex marriage, it sparked outrage in many corners of the country.Condemnation poured out from Australia’s political opposition, with Daniel Andrews, the premier of the state of Victoria and a member of the Labor Party, asking at a news conference why her views, “which are disgraceful, hurtful and cost lives, should be honored.”Nick McKim, leader of the progressive Greens party, said in an email, “Margaret Court has spent more of her life campaigning against marriage equality than she ever spent on the tennis courts.” He added that the award was “a disgraceful insult to everyone Margaret Court has harmed by voicing support for apartheid and her decades-long campaign against L.G.B.T.I.Q.+ rights.”Ms. Court did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment. She told a local TV station that she had “never had anyone out in the community come to me and say, ‘Well we don’t like you,’ ‘we don’t like your beliefs’ or anything else. I’ve had thousands come up to me and tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Thank you.’”Asked about Mr. Andrews’s comments, she said, “Well, I’ll call him blessed.”Ms. Court is scheduled to be awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia on Tuesday, Australia Day, for her service as a tennis player and as a mentor to young athletes. The honor falls under the Order of Australia, which confers public recognition for “outstanding achievement and service.”Nominations are made by an independent council and approved by the governor general. Hundreds of Australians receive the Order of Australia every year, and it has four tiers. The Companion award is the highest tier, and it is bestowed on only a handful of people each year. In 2020, just five people received it.Ms. Court, 78, was named an Officer of the Order of Australia — the second-highest tier — in 2007 for her unparalleled achievements in tennis.As Australia’s most successful female tennis player, she has 64 majors titles across singles, doubles and mixed doubles categories. She is a 24-time Grand Slam singles winner, a record that no male or female player has been able to beat. Serena Williams is next in line, one Grand Slam title away.Since retiring, Ms. Court’s legacy has been increasingly overshadowed by her intolerant views, and she has alienated many in the tennis world. In 1991, she said that lesbianism had ruined women’s tennis. A Pentecostal minister, she has vocally opposed same-sex marriage, compared L.G.B.T.Q. education to the work of the devil and denounced transgender athletes.There are ongoing calls to strip Ms. Court’s name from Melbourne Park’s second-biggest stadium, which was named after her in 2003 and is one of the sites of the Australian Open, set to begin next month. Referring to the annual eruptions of anger surrounding Ms. Court, Mr. Andrews, the premier of Victoria, said, “Do we really have to do this every single summer?”Tennis Australia, the country’s governing body for the sport, has resisted pressure to rename the stadium while seeking to distance itself from Ms. Court. Last year, when it recognized the 50th anniversary of her 1970 Grand Slam, it put out a disclaimer: “Tennis Australia does not agree with Court’s personal views, which have demeaned and hurt many in our community over a number of years.”Prime Minister Scott Morrison, when asked about the new award at a news conference on Friday, said he could not comment, given that the recipients had not been publicly announced. (The news about Ms. Court has been circulating online.) He added that they had been chosen via an “independent set of processes” and that the system “recognizes Australians from right across the full spectrum of achievement in this country.”Last year, the Order of Australia awards were overshadowed by controversy around one recipient, Bettina Arndt, a vocal campaigner against what she describes as the “demonization of men in our society.” Ms. Arndt was widely condemned for praising a police officer for “keeping an open mind” about whether a man accused of murdering his wife and children had been “driven too far.”Following that public backlash, the Council for the Order of Australia released a statement noting that its recommendations “are not an endorsement of the political, religious or social views of recipients, nor is conferral of an honor an endorsement of the personally held beliefs of recipients.”It added, “In a system that recognizes hundreds of people each year, it is inevitable that each list will include some people who others believe should not be recognized.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More