Australian Open quarantined players made ‘several’ requests for kittens, says Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley

Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley says a request from a player for a kitten to play with during lockdown was the oddest demand his staff dealt with, as players looked for ways to entertain themselves during their 14-day quarantine ahead of the Australian Open.

Speaking on ABC Offsiders, Tiley said the players made the request on one of many Zoom calls he had with the players daily, where they were able to “vent” to Australian Open staff.

“The most bizarre request was for a kitten in the lockdown room, and that wasn’t once, that was several times,” Tiley said.

“But then we explained that actually there is a correlation between the coronavirus and kittens and that kind of request went away.

“There were a few times I wouldn’t mind putting a boxing kangaroo in there,” Tiley joked.

While some players have expressed support for quarantine despite the inconvenience, including Serena Williams, others have taken to social media to express their frustrations.

That included US player Tennys Sandgren, who released a video mocking Tennis Australia when he found out he would have to stay in quarantine for an extra day.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen that, so [to deal with it, I] try to ignore it,” Tiley said.

“These are high-performing athletes … We knew from the beginning that it would be a challenge.”

No government support for costs

Tiley stoked controversy when players began to arrive by saying he was not sure whether the government would be helping fund the player’s hotel quarantine, but said that was a “combination of misinterpretation” and him “misspeaking”.

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He said Tennis Australia was “depleting” its cash reserves to fund the increased operational costs, but would also be taking out a loan to help with the costs.

“We are paying for the quarantine costs, paying for the operational costs, revenue associated as well,” Tiley said.

“There won’t be a need [for government support].

“We have significant cash reserves, which we will deplete.

“We needed the [Victorian] Government to run the quarantine program because they are the experts, the Department of Health and Human Services was critical to this being successful.”

Tiley said the size of the loan would be determined after the tournament when all the costs had been accounted for.

‘Absolutely, we could lose the Australian Open’

Tennis Australia said it would also negotiate with the Victorian Government on an extension of the term of hosting the Australian Open by three years to 2039.

“There has been a lot of commentary on that and, absolutely, we could lose the Australian Open,” Tiley said.

“If we miss it for the year, all the threats we’ve had around another city — Shanghai or Singapore — just goes to make some multi-million-dollar investment in a facility, multi-million dollars in prize money and then all of a sudden becomes an easier place for players to go.

“If people have been around long enough, in the early ’70s the top players didn’t come down to Melbourne. It’s not too difficult to get to that position. Maintaining it at that level, maintaining with the French Open and US Open is critical.

Tiley admitted that putting on the tournament under these conditions was pressure-filled, but said the positives outweigh the negatives.

“There have been many moments where we’ve thought about [whether it was all worth it] and questioned it, but not enough of a question where we would say we wouldn’t be persistently persistent,” Tiley said.

“Some people have accused us of being dog-headed about it, but we would not do it if it was not safe, that’s for sure.

“The opportunity to bring in those players to showcase the game to the world, about Melbourne being the sporting capital of the world and to be able to have the fans come back out and watch tennis and the opportunity to instil some confidence into the community, as well as have an economic impact, is too great an opportunity to pass up than not do it,” Tiley said.