Palermo (Italy) (AFP)

A player "has tested positive for Covid-19 and has therefore withdrawn from the tournament" in Palermo, which should mark the resumption of world tennis on Monday after a five-month hiatus due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, announced the WTA on Saturday, without specifying his identity.

This press release came a few minutes before the start of qualifying for the Sicilian tournament, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday afternoon. But "the Palermo tournament will continue as planned," writes the WTA.

The sports organization only specified that the player concerned was asymptomatic, without giving her name.

A little later, the package, for illness, of the Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova (130th), entered in qualifying, was however announced.

The WTA emphasizes having "immediately implemented" its plan to fight the spread of Covid-19. "Anyone who tests positive will remain in isolation until declared cured by a doctor according to established protocols, and will receive appropriate medical treatment. All those who may have been in close contact with the (contaminated) person are they tested according to the protocols of the WTA ”, she explains.

"The player, who was tested on her arrival in Palermo in the mobile unit adjacent to the hotel housing the players, was transferred to a structure (...) dedicated to asymptomatic patients", explains Professor Antonio Casco, anti-Covid consultant for the tournament, in a press release from the organizers. She had not left her hotel room "pending the results of this test," he adds.

- Close five months of parenthesis -

"The efficiency of the protocols and controls allowed us to intercept a positive case," he underlines.

The Palermo tournament must close the long parenthesis open in early March for world tennis, at the dawn of the Californian tournament in Indian Wells, due to the new coronavirus. Since then, the season has been completely turned upside down by the global health crisis, with the postponement of Roland Garros to the fall (27 September-11 October), the historic cancellation of Wimbledon, and, at this stage, the maintenance of the 'US Open on its initial dates, but behind closed doors and cut off from its qualifications, from August 31.

First announced as the headliner of the Palermo tournament, Simona Halep, former world No. 1 and double Grand Slam winner (Roland-Garros 2018 and Wimbledon 2019), ended up giving up making the trip there. A few days ago, after a fortnight was imposed by the Italian authorities on people who have recently stayed in Romania as well as in Bulgaria, in the face of the increase in Covid-19 cases in the two countries in recent weeks.

On the men's side, the return to the ATP circuit, a time scheduled for mid-August in Washington, was postponed for an additional week, at the Cincinnati Masters 1000, exceptionally relocated to Flushing Meadows, then the theater of the New York Grand Slam, in from August 22.

© 2020 AFP