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Bad news for all tennis fans and those who bet on tennis. As it seems, it is still uncertain when we will be able to bet on tennis again. The real question is, will there be any tennis betting odds in January 2021 as the season start is likely to be postponed?
Possible Postponement of the Season
The beginning of the 2021 tennis season and the first Grand Slam Australian Open remains uncertain after organizers announced on Wednesday that there are new difficulties regarding the arrival of tennis players in the country.
The Slovak tennis player Lukas Lacko explained on Twitter that there are new regulations which means that players will not be allowed to enter Australia in December as originally planned.
The plan called for 500 tennis players to come to Australia in mid-December to host tournaments in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, Adelaide and Canberra before the Australian Open begins in Melbourne (January 18-31).
Quarantine of 14 Days
Upon arrival in Australia, players should remain quarantined and train there until the start of the season. The quarantine in Australia lasts 14 days and any delay would jeopardize the implementation of the entire plan as the first tournaments start in early January.
“We understand there is uncertainty about the start of the 2021 season, and we are working as hard as possible to deliver the best possible calendar,” said ATP.
The first suspicions surfaced on Monday after Victoria’s Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said that nothing had been “done” regarding the organization of the tournament earlier this year, recalling that Melbourne, the center of Australia’s second wave of pandemics, had just emerged from months of closure.
On Wednesday, a new wave of the pandemic in South Australia led to a new six-day closure in the state near Victoria to curb the spread outside the city of Adelaide.
Australian Open to be Postponed?
There were several media reports that Australian Open would probably be postponed for February or even March due to the COVID-19 protocols in force in the country. The Herald-Sun announced on Saturday that the start of the first Grand Slam is being postponed even though organizers are negotiating quarantine terms with the Victoria state government where Melbourne is located.
However, the Australian Tennis Federation (TA) neglected media reports about postponing the start of the first Grand Slam tournament.
“It’s pure speculation,” a TA spokesman said of the media headlines.
“Earlier this week, we announced that we are continuing to work with the Victoria state government and will give you more information as soon as we have it, but for now there is nothing new,” he added.
Harold Sun quoted Victoria State Prime Minister Daniel Andrews saying he was “very confident” that they would host the Australian Open, but that the exact timing and all other arrangements “have not yet been resolved”.
The TA planned for the tennis players and their entourage to arrive in Victoria in mid-December so they could complete a mandatory two-week quarantine before the start of the Australian Open in January.
