Six Tennis Events Over a Week Ahead of Australian Open 2021

Published 01/24/2021, 2:01 AM EST

The lead-up to the Australian Open 2021 has not been an auspicious one for the organizers, with three flight-loads of players forced into hard quarantine without practice after some crew members tested positive for COVID-19.

Worse, a total of 10 people involved with the tournament, including four players, also tested positive in the subsequent days, adding to the worries of top tournament officials, who have also been sweating on reports of players complaining about the quality of food being served during the quarantine.

Serena, Nadal, Djokovic to play exhibition event in Adelaide

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The unsavory headlines, however, haven’t dulled or slackened the hectic pre-tournament activities and it now turns out that six different tournaments will be held in Australia over the next week, starting January 31, before the year’s first Grand Slam kicks off on February 8.

While most players who have arrived for the tournament are quarantining in Melbourne, the host city, the top-3 across the men’s and women’s fields are being hosted in the South Australian city of Adelaide.

Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will be among the eight top players to feature in a curtain-raiser event in Adelaide named A Day at the Drive. It will be held at the Memorial Drive Tennis Center on January 29.

Additional WTA event before Australian Open 2021 to feature players under hard quarantine

Now, there’s news that WTA, in collaboration with Tennis Australia, has wedged in another women’s event before Grand Slam action begins at Melbourne Park.

SIX different tennis tournaments will be played next week (starting January 31st) at the same venue. One of the craziest weeks in tennis history 🤪 https://t.co/400cUtEj9U
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) January 23, 2021

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The event, to be staged from February 3 to 7, will only feature players currently in hard quarantine. It will have a 28-player draw without any qualifying or doubles fixtures. As many as 27 of 31 WTA players, who are in hard quarantine right now, only play singles.

The other events preceding the Australian Open 2021 include an ATP 250 tournament that has been shifted from Melbourne to Adelaide and will be held from January 31 to February 6.

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Then there’s another ATP 250 event that will be hosted by Melbourne on the same dates as the Adelaide one. However, the biggest of them all is the ATP Cup, a team event to be held from February 1 to 5.

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Priyabrata Chowdhury is a tennis author for EssentiallySports. He has been a print journalist for a decade, producing news pages for leading national dailies such as the Hindustan Times and The New Indian Express. His passion for sports eventually drove him to tennis writing.

Six Tennis Events Over a Week Ahead of Australian Open 2021

Serena, Nadal, Djokovic to play exhibition event in Adelaide

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Additional WTA event before Australian Open 2021 to feature players under hard quarantine