Australian Open at risk due to coronavirus pandemic, says Craig Tiley
If AO in Melbourne does go ahead then chief executive Craig Tiley says it could be open to Australian-only fans
Wednesday 6 May 2020 11:11, UK
Next year's Australian Open could be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, admits tennis chief Craig Tiley.
The Australian Open was able to take place in January as scheduled but French Open organisers have moved the clay-court Grand Slam back to September from its May start while Wimbledon has been cancelled.
The fate of the US Open in New York is expected to be decided in June.
Tennis Australia chief executive Tiley admits next year's Australian Open might not escape the impact of the global pandemic.
Australia has had less than 7,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus while 96 people have died from the virus.
"Worst-case scenario is no AO," he said. "Our best-case scenario at this point is having an AO with players that we can get in here with quarantining techniques and Australian-only fans."
There is a fear the remainder of the 2020 season could be wiped out while Tiley has previously said he expected tennis to lose the remainder of the season to the pandemic.
"There's four scenarios and we've modelled everything," he said. "We've modelled the times we have to make decisions, dates we have to make decisions, who it impacts, how it's going to impact them.
"We've done that for 670 staff. We've done that for all of our partners - our media partners, our sponsors and for all the governments and places we rent facilities.
"And now we're working on the international playing group and getting them to understand what each of those scenarios are and what it means for them and how we can action it."
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