And the departure of the tennis players to Melbourne there has been the first controversy. It has been with Tennys Sandgren as the protagonist. The American, who had had the coronavirus in November, tested positive in the last mandatory test before taking the flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne. The health authorities of the state of Victoria determined that Sandgren had traces of the virus in his body, but that in no case could he infect other people. Tennis Australia earned that argument and the player is already flying towards the capital of Victoria.
Sandgren, like the rest of the professionals who arrived for the Australian tennis tour, will undergo a PCR test as soon as they arrive at their Melbourne hotel. And that test will be repeated every day that they come out of their quarantine to go to training. The Yankee, 50 in the ATP ranking, has been a quarter-finalist of the first ‘Grand Slam’ on the calendar twice, in 2018 and 2020.
The way of acting of the Aussie organization is far from what happened to Fernando Verdasco in a similar situation at the past Roland Garros. The Madrilenian, who had passed COVID-19 in August, later tested negative in all tests. In the first one that was carried out upon arrival in Paris, it was positive. Verdasco argued that it could have traces of the virus, but that it was in no way contagious. He was disqualified without the option of taking a second test, thus breaking his streak of consecutive appearances in the ‘Grand Slam’ on earth.
