Some of the world’s best tennis players have emerged from quarantine in Adelaide this morning, much to the delight of adoring fans, after being mostly confined to their hotel rooms for the past two weeks.
Key points:
- International tennis players have finished their 14-day quarantine in Adelaide
- Some of them will be playing in a tournament at Memorial Drive
- The Australian Open starts on February 8
The players — including Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal — arrived in South Australia earlier this month in preparation for the Australian Open, and immediately began 14 days of mandatory quarantine.
They were only allowed outside for supervised training sessions at the Memorial Drive tennis complex.
The players in Adelaide will use the Day at the Drive exhibition event as a warm-up, before the Australian Open starts in Melbourne on February 8.
The group also includes Simona Halep, Dominic Thiem, Jannik Sinner, Venus Williams, Irina-Camelia Begu and Australia’s world number one Ash Barty, all of whom will play in matches today.
After leaving hotel quarantine, Djokovic spent time alone on a park bench, before being spotted by fans in North Adelaide’s Wellington Square.
The world number one said he was “thrilled to be out”.
“That’s why we’re here — for sports, entertainment, passion and good fun.”
Djokovic, who was coached as a junior by Adelaide-born Dejan Petrovic, said he had been made “very welcome” by Adelaide’s “big Serbian community”.
“These 14 days … there wasn’t a day I didn’t have someone under the balcony with a Serbian flag, and I want to thank them all for making the stay in the hotel much easier for me and my team,” Djokovic said.
Osaka this morning also thanked authorities, saying the time in quarantine had had a silver lining.
“The biggest thing it gave me was the chance to look inside myself, so it was more mental than anything tennis-related,” she said.
Serena takes daughter on Adelaide Zoo visit
Osaka will today take on Serena Williams, who is aiming for a record-equalling 24th grand slam tournament victory at the Australian Open next month.
Williams spent the morning at the Adelaide Zoo with her daughter Olympia, after sharing a room together for a fortnight.
“We promised her we would take her to the zoo to see koalas and kangaroos,” she said.
Williams joked that, while she “wouldn’t trade” time spent with family, she was glad to be out of isolation.
“And then it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, it never ends’, so, yeah … it was fun.”
Barty, who will face Halep on centre court later tonight, said she was looking forward to getting back on court.
“Even though it is an exhibition, I’ve spoken to Sim about it and we’re both ready to play, play hard and test ourselves and kind of prepare ourselves as best as we possibly can,” she said.
“It’s going to be a really good day in Adelaide.”
Nadal — who spent some of his time on court by showing off his foot skills — said it had been “difficult to think about tennis” for most of 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Here we are, starting another year … I’m excited to be back,” he said.
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‘Fantastic to have them here’
Premier Steven Marshall said it was a “pretty exciting day for South Australia” to have players with 67 grand slams between competing in Adelaide.
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“It’s fantastic to have them here — we couldn’t be more excited,” he said.
“I’ve heard from the players that they’ve been down to the beach, over to the zoo, out for a coffee this morning.
“I think they’re enjoying their newfound freedom and I hope they really get to enjoy a little bit of Adelaide before they head off to the Australian Open.”
Players and officials in Melbourne are also being released from quarantine today.
Some of them have not been allowed to leave their hotels to train after positive cases among arrivals.
Djokovic said he sympathised with them and hoped no-one got injured after being stuck inside.
“These guys and girls will definitely have a disadvantage,” he said.
“They’ve done their best to do some training in their rooms, but there’s not much movement — they couldn’t hit the ball.”
The Adelaide International tennis tournament was cancelled in only its second year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
