A Spanish player complains of a "pitiful" quarantine at the Australian tennis championships

A Spanish tennis player who was criticized for violating quarantine rules related to the emerging corona virus, before she was tested positive, complained that she was forced to endure "deplorable" conditions, before the start of the Australian Open.

The world number 67, Paula Padosa, told the Spanish newspaper "Marca" that she felt rejected in a small hotel room in Melbourne after she was diagnosed with Covid-19.

The 23-year-old was among many players who complained about the quarantine ahead of the late opening of the first Grand Slam tournament this season, but she returned and apologized via Twitter last week.

But in a new criticism, Padusa, who was transferred to a different hotel after testing positive, said the quarantine in Melbourne was one of the worst experiences of her career.

In statements published by Marca yesterday, she added: I do not have windows in my room, which is barely 15 square meters.

She added, "It is clear that the only thing I breathe is the virus. I have ordered cleaning products, such as a vacuum cleaner, but they did not give me anything."

Tournament organizers said earlier that they were providing training equipment to the players, as many of them converted their rooms into makeshift gyms and were hitting balls against the hotel walls.

But Padusa said she has been waiting for five days to send the training equipment to her room.

And she added, "I feel rejected because I do not have the materials to train with, which I requested five days ago. They did not tell me what kind of virus I had been infected with, although it could be known after three days. There is no information about the tournament."

Some players, notably the world number one Novak Djokovic, who is under quarantine in Adelaide, have opposed the lockdown measures.

Badusa is one of 72 players who have been quarantined in hotel rooms for 14 days after arriving on flights in which positive cases were discovered.

Some players, who were on flights that did not carry cases, were allowed out of their hotel rooms for up to five hours a day to train under strictly controlled conditions.

The players' complaints about the measures sparked criticism from the Australian public, some of which advocated strict isolation measures as necessary in the country relatively free from the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Australian Open, which has been postponed for three weeks due to the pandemic, is due to start on February 8th.

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