There is now less than a month until the start of the Australian Open 2021, a competition that will begin on February 8th. Due to the various restrictions and quarantine that every tennis player will have to face, however, in a few days all tennis players will leave for the oceanic continent to train (first week in two people and second week in four people) strictly respecting the protocol.
A situation that occurred in recent days and announced by Craig Tiley was not particularly liked by tennis players and consequently also by one of the founders of the PTPA, that is the number one in the world Novak Djokovic.
The Serbian tennis player, as well as some of the tennis players who will go to Australia, are not happy with the difference in treatment between the stars of the men and women’s tours, and the other tennis players.
In fact the Top-3 of the men’s seeding and the top women tennis players will suffer the quarantine in Adelaide compared to all the other tennis players who will instead carry out the mandatory quarantine in Melbourne where they certainly will not have the same luxuries and will probably get a different treatment.
The different treatment between Melbourne and Adelaide
In fact, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Serena Williams, Simona Halep and Naomi Osaka will go to Adelaide with perhaps the possibility of adding a few more people, perhaps among the training partners of the top player.
The tennis players of Adelaide will certainly have a difference in restrictions compared to those of Melbourne, starting first from the number of people who can accompany an athlete: for those who go to Melbourne there cannot be more than two people and they can leave the hotel room for train and dine for just five hours a day.
Those who go to Adelaide will be able to have a greater number of companions and this members will be able to be out of the hotel room for up to five hours.
These will also have access to a 24-hour gym inside the hotel with the tennis players who can go there even outside the five-hour regulation.
Some tennis players did not like this difference in treatment, first of all the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
In the last few hours, it seems that even the number one in the world and co-founder of the PTPA Novak Djokovic has expressed several doubts about this inequality of treatment, although the question certainly favors him.
It must be reiterated that the role of Novak Djokovic puts him in difficulty, given that, as president of the PTPA he works to guarantee equal rights between players and what should happen in Australia certainly does not favor all of this.
