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Tiley confident Open tennis will go ahead

3 minute read

Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley is confident the 2022 Australian Open will proceed, with players to enter a two-week biosecure bubble beforehand.

Australian Open boss Craig Tiley remains supremely confident the Melbourne Park grand slam will proceed in January despite COVID-19 continuing to wreak havoc around much of the country.

With Tiley last week conceding the world's best tennis players wouldn't cop another fortnight in hotel quarantine, as they did before this year's Open, Australia's biggest and richest annual sporting event had been in doubt for 2022.

But Tiley on Thursday revealed a plan for players to instead spend two weeks in a biosecure bubble before next year's event.

"There's a lot of time between now and when we get going but, at this point in time, we're planning on having a two-week bubble, where the players will be able to move freely between the hotel and the courts," Tiley said during a Nine Network marketing launch.

"They're protected, they're kept safe among themselves and safe from the community as well.

"And after those two weeks, they'll come out and be able to compete in the Australian Open in front of crowds."

Tiley said Open officials were working closely with the government and health authorities to determine exactly what the crowd capacity would be at Melbourne Park.

Fans were banned for much of the 2021 Open following a snap lockdown of Melbourne due to a COVID outbreak in the Victorian capital midway through the tournament.

This year's event was rescheduled to February because organisers were unable to secure government approval in time, but Tiley is hopeful the 2022 edition will return to its traditional timeslot in the second week of January.

He also hopes Australia reaches its target of vaccinating 80 per cent of adults by November.

"That will certainly help the situation for the event in January," he said.

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