The landing in Melbourne has been brutal for 47 tennis players who must participate in the

Australian Open (February 8-21)

: they will not be able to train for two weeks because they have traveled on one of the two flights in which other passengers have tested positive for covid -19.

The State of Victoria, where Melbourne is located, first announced this Saturday two positive cases aboard

a flight from Los Angeles

that was carrying 24 tennis players.

Then the Australian Open confirmed another case of covid-19 on an Abu Dhabi-Melbourne flight, in which there were 23 tennis players.

Although none of the three people diagnosed is a tennis player, all the passengers are considered 'contact cases' and have been

in strict quarantine

for 14 days, without the possibility of having a few hours a day to train.

"No player or member of his environment may interrupt the quarantine to participate in training," said a spokesman for the quarantine program of the State of Victoria, after the announcement of cases aboard the Los Angeles-Melbourne flight.

One of the positives was from a crew member and another from a non-tennis passenger.

Both had tested negative before departure.

The 47 tennis players (male and female) will therefore be deprived of the possibility of having five hours of training a day during those fourteen days of strict quarantine, which they will have to spend in

the hotel room

.

According to the local press, the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (Australian Open champion in 2012 and 2013), the American Sloane Stephens and the Japanese Kei Nishikori were on the Los Angeles-Melbourne flight and other former Grand Slam tournament champions were in to the plane that left Abu Dhabi (Bianca Andreescu, Angelique Kerber, Svetlana Kuznetsova).

"We are in contact with all the people on board that flight and especially with the group of players whose conditions have now changed, to respond as best as possible to their needs," said the Australian Open skipper,

Craig Tiley

, after the Announcement of cases of the flight from Los Angeles.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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