Sandgren flying to Melbourne despite positive Covid test

2020 Australian Open quarter-finalist Tennys Sandgren has been granted permission to travel Down Under despite testing positive for COVID-19 on Monday.

Sandgren was infected with the coronavirus in November, but tested positive for a second time this week.

On Thursday the 29-year-old suggested he had not been allowed to board the chartered flight to Australia from Los Angeles but later added he would able to board the chartered flight before calling Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley a “wizard”.

“At least I get to keep my points,” he posted to Twitter.

“Wow I’m on the plane. Maybe I just held my breath too long,” he said in a tweet.

He explained his first positive test was in November and he was now “totally recovered”.

“I was sick in November, totally healthy now. There’s not a single documented case where I would be contagious at this point.”

The Australian Open said Victorian health authorities had given Sandgren the all-clear to fly.

The tournament’s Twitter account said people who had recovered and were “non-infectious can continue to shed the virus for several months”.

“Victorian government public health experts assess each case based on additional detailed medical records to ensure they are not infectious before checking in to the charter flights,” the Australian Open said.

“Players and their teams are tested every day from their arrival in Australia, a much stricter process than for anyone else in hotel quarantine.”

The first group of about 1,200 players and staff were due to land in Melbourne on Thursday for the tournament, which is scheduled to start on 8 February, with warm-up events beginning on 31 January.