Bugaluu :: Sports

For the first time since the 2019 World Cup quarter-final victory over Australia, George Ford has dropped to the bench.

Englishman has drawn criticism for his U-turn on playing in the Saudi International – but the sport’s governing powers should not be putting players in such a position

World number two Rafa Nadal on Thursday said doubts remain over his fitness ahead of next week’s Australian Open. Nadal pulled out of Spain’s ATP Cup tie against Australia on Tuesday with a lower back problem and, despite some improvement, said he was still far away from the level required to play at the year’s first Grand Slam. “It’s not that I’m in a really bad way, but I’m also not alright in the sense that I can’t play either,” Nadal told Spanish television channel Movistar+.

Canadian star made his second major comeback inside 15 months at the Royal Rumble

Lingard joined West Ham on loan from Manchester United last month.

The Australian Open is often known as the “Happy Slam”. But now, after the panic caused by a hotel worker’s positive Covid test, it might be better described as the “Nervous Slam”. The infected man probably contracted the virus from incoming tennis personnel at Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt, where he worked on corridor-patrol duty. The fear now is that he may have spread one of the more virulent strains around the city. Australian Open 2021: draw date, seeds, match schedule and TV details Thursday’s news has been encouraging, thus far. Health authorities said that 15 of the man’s 17 close contacts had tested negative, with the other two results still pending. As for the 507 tennis people who spent their two-week quarantine at the Grand Hyatt – who include 160 players – they have also undergone tests, without any positives emerging yet. Craig Tiley, tournament director of the Australian Open, gave an upbeat press conference on Wednesday night. “We are absolutely confident that the Australian Open is going to go ahead,” he said. “We will be starting on Monday and we have no intention of changing times. The probability is very low that there is going to be an issue [with the 507 tennis personnel from the Grand Hyatt]. We expect them all to test negative.” The stakes remain terrifyingly high. If the patient proves to have infected others – and he visited golf ranges, supermarkets and bars in the four days between leaving the Grand Hyatt and testing positive – then the whole city will be plunged back into a hard lockdown. There will be significant economic damage as well as the threat of further deaths. Sport might seem trivial in the context of a pandemic, but the Australian Open is a huge event with a turnover that approaches A$500 million. An outbreak would cause enormous damage to the tournament’s brand, with after-effects that would last for years. In the short term, Tiley postponed the Australian Open draw – which was supposed to happen early on Thursday morning, UK time – for 24 hours. The same fate has befallen all the 62 matches which had been scheduled at Melbourne on Thursday. These include the showpiece ATP Cup, in which defending champions Serbia take on Germany, as well as five warm-up events designed to get everyone ready for the start of the Australian Open on Monday. As a result, many of the players who win matches on Friday will be asked to compete again a few hours later. British No 1 Dan Evans is among those affected: he will open up against Marcos Giron, the world No 73 from the USA, and then take on either Borna Coric or his good friend Nick Kyrgios if he wins. The WTA tour moved to reduce the workload for female players by cancelling deciding sets and replacing them with a first-to-10-point tie-break. The ATP, however, opted to stick to the usual best-of-three-sets format. Although Friday is expected to be wet, Melbourne Park has three stadium courts with roofs. Some matches could also be moved to the National Tennis Centre – a training facility on the edge of the site that has eight indoor courts. Tennis Australia run a slick operation and such logistics can be worked through. The real concern now is about Melbourne itself. Before the hotel worker’s positive test, the city had gone 28 days without a case in the community. Tracing the possible path of infection is a job for the Victorian authorities, who have proved their worth by keeping the state’s death toll down to just 820 people to date. As the testers continue their work, Tiley and his team will be praying for a clean bill of health.