International tennis players and staff have touched down in Melbourne ahead of next month’s Australian Open.
The first of 15 charter flights carrying tennis players and officials for the tournament, starting on February 8, landed at Tullamarine’s Melbourne Jet Base about 6pm on January 14.
The Doha flight arrivals were greeted by airport staff and biosecurity officials wearing personal protective equipment including masks and face shields, before being whisked away to hotel quarantine.
More private jets from Doha, Abu Dhabi, Los Angeles, Singapore and Dubai will land in the Victorian capital over the next 36 hours.
American world no.50 Tennys Sandgren, who was allowed to board his LA flight despite testing positive for coronavirus this week, was expected to arrive just before 3am Friday AEDT.
The former Australian Open quarter-finalist was deemed to be no longer contagious and a case of viral shedding, having been struck down with COVID-19 in November.
All players and staff based in Victoria will be tested daily and must quarantine at one of three Australian Open-dedicated hotels for two weeks.
But not all will be serving their quarantine stint in Melbourne.
Two special charter planes with mega-stars including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka and Dominic Thiem are flying direct to Adelaide on Thursday night.
They will quarantine in North Adelaide’s Majestic M Hotel before an exhibition event at Memorial Drive on January 29 in the South Australian capital.
Before the 1200-strong international contingent’s arrival, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews rejected criticism of the Australian Open going ahead.
He said the grand slam was cleared to proceed on public health advice and added it is a massive jobs creator.
“This event is very important to our city and our state,” he told reporters.
“It is worth going to these unprecedented measures to be sure it goes ahead.”
