Sydney (AFP)

The Australian Tennis Federation said Monday that the preparation tournaments for the next Australian Open would be relocated near Melbourne due to the epidemic of the new coronavirus, an announcement quickly denied by the authorities of the State of Victoria who maintain that nothing is done in this direction.

This project foresees that the tournaments scheduled in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra will be held in the state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, before the start of the Australian Open (January 18 to 31).

Federation general manager Craig Tiley explained the move by the fact that Australian state governments could not guarantee that foreign players participating in the preparation tournaments would be free to travel to Melbourne in January.

"There will be no risk of the Australian Open starting without everyone in Victoria, and we weren't sure before," he told The Herald Sun, a newspaper from Melbourne.

Tournament officials in Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart have all issued statements regretting that they cannot host these events, hoping they will be held normally in 2022.

But Victoria Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said nothing was "done", recalling that Melbourne, the heart of the second epidemic wave in Australia, had just emerged from long months of confinement.

"This is a huge event, an event we all love, but which comes as the world is in crisis," he told reporters in reference to the Australian summer major tennis tournament series. .

"It's an important event, of course, but you might think that avoiding a third wave is even more important," he added.

According to this project, more than 500 foreign players would land in Victoria to start quarantine in hotels where they would have access to tennis courts.

Once they finished their quarantine and tested twice negative for Covid-19, they would be free to move around Victoria.

But Mr Andrews observed that this project involved a huge logistical organization with complex arrangements in terms of housing.

“The idea that everything is set, that things are done, is just wrong,” he said.

The Australian federation seems to have spoken prematurely, Mr Tiley even saying he expects the Victoria government to allow the public to attend the Australian Open, but at 25% of the capacity of Melbourne Park.

"We'll see how it goes," reacted Novak Djokovic, who is currently playing in the Masters in London.

"But I just hope for the sake of tennis and the players that the Australian Open will take place and the ATP Cup and several other tournaments can take place," he added.

The country's second-largest city emerged from months of lockdown last month due to a second epidemic wave.

Melbourne has not registered any new cases of Covid-19 since October 29.

© 2020 AFP