As the year 2021 starts its second month, major sporting events around the world are testing the waters with regards to when and how they will hold their competitions while COVID-19 is still widespread and not everyone has been vaccinated. The question of whether Japan will push through with the Tokyo Summer Olympics this coming July after postponing it last year during the worst of the quarantines is still up in the air. But for the 2021 Australian Open, after a cautionary move from last month to this February the spirits are high, if the unmasked spectators during the pre-tournament exhibition matches is any indication.
CNN tells us that the warm-up matches for this year’s Australian
Open have kicked off last week, days before the actual commencement of
competition this coming February 8. On Friday, January 29, Australians flocked
to the city of Adelaide, where no less than 4,000 people were packed in the
stands around one of the venue’s hard-court surfaces to watch the best tennis
players in the world warm up ahead of the Open. The wondrous thing about the
sight, as commented on in Australian media, was that the spectators were almost
all watching without wearing masks.
Perhaps in any other nation of
the world, such an audacious mass action would have constituted as a “super
spreader” event that would have seen a spike in new cases of COVID wherever
that might have happened. But in Australia in general and Adelaide in
particular, efforts to keep the annoyingly infectious and potentially deadly
disease have been quite successful. Prior to last Friday, the country recorded
12 straight days without any new reported local infection, as proudly confirmed
by Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt. Already the country has a total
28,800 confirmed COVID cases, 909 of which have died.
The sometimes draconian measures
Australia undertook to control the coronavirus within their shores may have
rubbed some of the Australian Open competitors from abroad the wrong way. Several
of them complained on social media at being subjected to 14-day isolated
quarantines regardless of any tests taken before travel. Rafael Nadal of Spain
has called on fellow players to be more open-minded to the safety precautions.
Perhaps the sight of an unmasked audience during the Adelaide exhibition games convinced
them. American Andy Roddick certainly liked what he saw, according to Twitter.
It makes my heart full seeing fans in the stands. Well done Australia !! https://t.co/buhuQ1yQu3
— andyroddick (@andyroddick) January 29, 2021
Melbourne will as always host the
Australian Open for 2021, which will run February 8-21.
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