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Djoko hope Aus Open 2021 goes ahead for 'for sake of tennis'
Updated On: 18 November, 2020 07:36 AM IST | Melbourne | AFP
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Novak Djokovic returns to Diego Schwartzman during a league match of the ATP World Tour Finals on Monday. PIC/AFP
Novak Djokovic said on Monday he hopes the Australian Open goes ahead "for the sake of tennis", admitting the sport faces a challenging time as it gears up for the 2021 season. The world number one is playing in the ATP Finals in London at the end of a coronavirus-truncated season but the new campaign is due to start in just seven weeks' time. Tennis Australia earlier Monday flagged plans to move numerous Australian Open warm-up events to the state of Victoria, but received a blunt warning from the state premier that he would scupper any event that risked reigniting Melbourne's Covid-19 crisis. Under the plan, tournaments originally planned for Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra would all be played in Victoria before the Open at Melbourne Park from January 18 to 31.
Tournament director Craig Tiley said the move was because virus restrictions meant that state governments could not guarantee overseas players contesting warm-ups outside Victoria would be free to travel to Melbourne for the Grand Slam. "There is now no risk of the Australian Open going ahead without everyone (all players) in Victoria, and we didn't have that guarantee previously," he told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper. But Victoria Premier Dan Andrews said the plans were "not a done deal", particularly since Melbourne only recently emerged from a month-long lockdown to eliminate a second wave of Covid-19.
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