30,000 fans a day allowed at Australian Open

SYDNEY: The Australian Open will be allowed to admit up to 30,000 fans a day, around 50% of the usual attendance, when the Grand Slam gets underway on Feb 8, Victoria state sports minister Martin Pakula said on Saturday.

The limit will be reduced to 25,000 over the last five days of the tournament when there are fewer matches, but Pakula said the announcement would ensure some of the biggest crowds for a sporting event since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’ll mean that over the 14 days, we will have up to 390,000 people here at Melbourne Park and that’s about 50% of the average over the last three years,” he told reporters at the venue for the tournament.

“It will not be the same as the last few years but it will be the most significant international event with crowds that the world has seen in many, many months.” Pakula said the decision was a testament to the job the people of Victoria had done in containing the new coronavirus after enduring one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world.

It has been 24 days since Victoria reported a locally acquired Covid-19 infection, while Australia as a whole posted a 13th straight day without a community case on Saturday. The Australian government said the country remained on track to start its vaccine rollout from late February despite reports of supply problems in Europe.

More than 1,000 people, players and their entourages, were obliged to undergo 14 days of quarantine on their arrival in Australia ahead of the year’s first Grand Slam.

Most were allowed out of their rooms for up to five hours a day for training and gym work, but 72 players remained in strict lockdown after fellow passengers on their flights to Australia tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19.

Despite gripes from some at the start of quarantine, tournament chief Craig Tiley said he was “particularly proud” of the “playing group”, most of whom will be out of quarantine by the end of Saturday.

Melbourne Park, site of the Australian Open, was busy on Saturday with all but 22 players out of hotel quarantine and preparing for the tune-up events which get under way on Sunday.

Two WTA tournaments kick off official proceedings on Sunday, and Australia’s world No. 1 Ash Barty has a first-round bye in one of them. Ajla Tomljanovic, ranked No. 69, takes on Alize Cornet of France in the first round to determine who will play 2019 Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka in the second.