No change to scheduled start of Australian Open, says Tiley

FILE PHOTO: Tennis - ATP Cup - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, February 4, 2021 Craig Tiley, CEO of Tennis Australia speaks to media during a press conference. Play on Thursday was cancelled after a hotel quarantine worker in Melbourne returned a positive result for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Up to 600 players and support staff connected to the Australian Open will have to isolate until they have been tested. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said the Grand Slam would start as planned next Monday despite a worker at one of the Melbourne hotels used to quarantine players and their entourages testing positive for COVID-19.

"We're absolutely confident the Australian Open will go ahead," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"We are starting on Monday."

Tiley said the players and support staff who underwent quarantine in the Grand Hyatt hotel, where the infected man worked, would have their obligatory tests for the new coronavirus completed by Thursday evening.

The draw for the Grand Slam tournament had been postponed from Thursday to Friday, Tiley added.

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney; editing by Kim Coghill)