Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa has described her extended period of quarantine ahead of the Australia Open following a positive coronavirus test as the worst moment of her career, adding she felt abandoned by organisers.
Key points:
- Paula Badosa tested positive on her seventh day of hotel quarantine after previously complaining about having to spend time in isolation
- Badosa said she has been forced to use water bottles as weights and do sit-ups in her room as she can not access exercise equipment
- She says she will be unable to prepare for the tournament if she cannot leave quarantine on January 31
Badosa, ranked 67 in the world, was the first player to test positive for the virus upon arrival in Australia ahead of the tournament and cannot leave her hotel room until January 31.
If she is found to have been infected with one of the mutated strains of coronavirus, be it from the UK, South Africa or Brazil, Badosa will only return to training on February 5, which the Spaniard believes will be too late to regain her fitness for the year’s opening grand slam.
The tournament, which has been delayed by three weeks due to disruption caused by the pandemic, takes place from February 8-21.
Australian Open organisers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Badosa, who said she had been suffering from anxiety and claustrophobia, has been limited to doing sit-ups in her hotel room and using water bottles as weights to try to stay in shape.
The 23-year-old added that the room, which she is sharing with coach Javier Marti, was not suitable for an elite athlete.
“The conditions here are lamentable, I wasn’t expecting that. The number one thing people recommend when you have the virus is to open the windows to let in air, but I don’t have windows in my hotel room and it’s barely 15 metres square.”
“I have lost a lot of my fitness levels, especially my strength. If I can come out on January 31, I’ll have a week to get in shape. If it’s February 5, it’ll be impossible to recover in time [for the tournament],” Badosa said.
The Spaniard arrived in Melbourne after playing in Abu Dhabi earlier this month and was on her seventh day in quarantine when her test came back positive.
She was one of a group of players who complained on Twitter about having to quarantine in the first place, saying rules “changed overnight”.
However, she deleted the tweet after she tested positive, instead writing a post saying she “understands the sad situation we are living” and that “health will always come first”.
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Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley said that those players that were complaining were in the minority.
Seventy-two players have been confined to hotel rooms for two weeks after passengers on three charter flights taking them to Australia had tested positive.
Reuters
