Tiley to ‘move heaven and earth’ to ensure Australian Open goes ahead

Australian tennis boss Craig Tiley has said he will ‘move heaven and earth’ to ensure the Australia Open goes ahead in January as Melbourne suffers a second spike in the Coronavirus pandemic.

The city is locked down for the next month, with no travel in or ours of the State of Victoria, but Tiley still believes the Grand Slam event will go ahead as planned early next year.

“It hasn’t even crossed my mind,” Tiley told The Age newspaper, when asked if the event might be moved to another venue, possibly Sydney or Brisbane.

“Heaven and earth will be moved to make it work in Melbourne. I don’t see any scenario possible where the Australian Open would move.”

The current plan – “scenario two” – would see the tournament proceed with “physical distancing” protocols in place.

Tiley pointed out that Tennis Australia uses the physical distancing plan because “you can still play a social game of tennis while not going near each other”.

The NSW Government has made an offer to stage the event in Sydney as positive cases continue to rise in Victoria.

“You can actually create a bubble over Melbourne Park to make it extremely safe. It will be world-leading,” Tiley said.