Melbourne (AFP)
French N.2 Benoît Paire said Monday "hard to play after spending fourteen days 24 hours a day in (his) bed", forced into a strict quarantine after traveling to Melbourne on board one of the planes affected by the cases of Covid-19, one week from the Australian Open.
"What is hard is not having a lot of time between the end of my quarantine and the start of the tournament, having to play a match three days after spending fourteen days 24 hours a day in my bed: the preparation is super fast suddenly, it's hard to find the rhythm, it is important not to hurt yourself, explained in a press conference Paire (28th), member of the French quartet who will play the ATP Cup, the young team competition of the men's circuit which begins on Tuesday.
"I will give everything for the team, but I'm a little afraid after fourteen days of inactivity. It's not easy. I'll see how it goes physically," he added.
Pair is one of 72 players who were deprived of any exit from their hotel room for fourteen days - compared to five daily hours allowed for the others - after positive cases were detected on three of the flights specifically chartered by the organizers of the Australian Grand Slam.
"Finally, I only went out on Sunday. I played golf, I played tennis twice, I have blisters everywhere, I have a lot of muscle soreness and I got sunburned. He said. It's not easy after fourteen days to find yourself suddenly on a court, to move. "
"I'm not going to lie, I haven't trained a lot this winter, I was counting on these fourteen days with two hours of tennis a day to be able to prepare myself. I couldn't do it", continued the French thirty-something. , who is not making the Australian Open a "priority" and is planning a clay court tour of South America in stride.
Paire had already experienced strict isolation during the US Open at the end of last summer in New York, after testing positive for Covid-19.
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