Tennis players forced into a 14-day quarantine ahead of Australian Open

Some of the athletes, including Swiss player Belinda Bencic and Romania's Sorana Cirstea, posted messages to Twitter arguing they'll be disadvantaged by a lack of training

Tennis professionals forced into a 14-day hotel quarantine on their arrival into Melbourne ahead of next month’s Australian Open tournament have been told by lawmakers they won’t receive special treatment as the nation strives to keep the pandemic under control.

More than 1,200 officials, players and support teams arriving in Australia for the two-week tournament starting Feb. 8 had already been anticipating strict rules -- including daily testing for Covid-19, and only being allowed out of their designated hotel rooms for five hours a day for training and treatment.

Now, 72 players have been ordered to stay isolated in their rooms for the full two weeks after arriving on flights that contained passengers who subsequently tested positive for coronavirus.

Some of those athletes, including Swiss player Belinda Bencic and Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, posted messages to Twitter arguing they’ll be disadvantaged by a lack of training. Uruguayan player Pablo Cuevas and Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva uploaded videos to social media accounts showing them hitting balls against upended mattresses inside their respective rooms.

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