Melbourne (TIP): The Australian Open will begin as scheduled on Monday, Feb 8,  even though a worker at one of the Melbourne hotels used to quarantine players and their entourages tested positive for COVID-19, tournament director Craig Tiley said on Thursday, Feb 4. The day’s warm-up matches at Melbourne Park were called off after the case was announced late on Wednesday, and those who underwent quarantine at the Grand Hyatt hotel were instructed to get tested and isolate until they had a result. “We’re absolutely confident the Australian Open will go ahead,” Tiley told reporters. “We are starting on Monday.” He said the 507 people affected, 160 of them players, would have their tests completed by late Thursday afternoon.

If the results were negative, the players would be free to participate in the six warm-up events at the Grand Slam venue to allow them to get match practice after 14 days in quarantine.

“This does give us three days for the lead-in events to be completed,” he said, adding that the draw for the Grand Slam tournament had been postponed from Thursday to Friday. Earlier, Victoria state health officials said the testing of the tennis cohort was precautionary. “We think the risk to other guests in the hotel – tennis players and their accompanying staff – is relatively low,” Allen Cheng told reporters.