Premier confident Australian Open tennis will go ahead

political leer of Australia’s Victorian state says despite “incredibly complex” negotiations, he is confident January’s Australian Open tennis tournament will proceed.

Daniel Andrews, state’s top lawmaker, on Monday h cast doubts over planning for season's first tennis Grand Slam tournament which is scheduled for Jan. 18-31 at Melbourne Park.

Tennis Australia has been hoping for several months that Victorian and Australian governments would approve a plan for players to start arriving in mid-December and to quarantine in a special training hub with ir restricted entours.

When tennis organizers anunced earlier in week that all regional tune-up tournaments would be moved to Victoria, rar than spre around or Australian capital cities as usual, Andrews reacted by saying that revised plans were “t a done deal.”

ATP, international men's tennis tour, later issued a memo to its players.

“In discussions with Tennis Australia over past 24 hours, we have been informed re are some new challenges around previously planned arrival dates for players and team members,” ATP said. “We continue to work with Tennis Australia on confirming plans for January, and we will provide an update as soon as more information is available in coming days.

Andrews on Wednesday reiterated his earlier comments on difficulty of holding Australian Open in Melbourne.

“It has to be done safely, it has to be done properly,” he said. “We are working very, very closely with Tennis Australia. y are working (with) all of ir partners and we’re confident that we’ll finish up with an Australian Open.”

Tennis Australia decision to move all events, including ATP Cup, to Victoria was aimed at avoiding potential for players being stranded interstate in event of sudden domestic border closures.

Andrews' government was in forefront of a second wave of COVID-19 deaths in his state which saw lengthy lockdowns for Melbourne residents. He received much criticism for enforcing curfews and a strict lockdown, but restrictions eventually worked.

Victoria’s hasn't recorded any deaths or new cases of COVID-19 for 19 days. state accounts for 819 of 907 people who have died from virus across Australia.

Some professional sports competitions in Australia, including National Rugby League, Australian Football League, Super Rugby and soccer’s A-League, went ahe after an initial lockdown in March with some players living and playing in bio-secure hubs.

Australian Open plans are similar to buildup for U.S. Open, first of tennis majors held after global sports shutdown, when Cincinnati tournament was moved to New York ahe of Grand Slam.

Australian Open organizers are hoping Victoria state government will allow spectators at Melbourne Park for Open. At this st, state government is allowing a crowd of up to 25% capacity at 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground for Australia vs. India cricket test starting on Dec. 26.

“We want event to happen, just like (cricket),” Andrews said on Monday. “But thing about cricket compared to tennis is it’s a tiny group of people (who) we think we can quarantine.”

Australian Open, he said, “is a massive event, it’s an event that all of us love ... but it comes at a time when rest of world is on fire.”