Whingeing gives way to winning as Venus Williams gets the positive result she craved most

[ASFN Admin]

Sun cream and energy gels. Glowing aquamarine courts. Selfies with fans. The world’s tennis players have spent the past fortnight cooped up in their quarantine hotels Down Under. Finally, at the weekend, they tasted the fruits of their confinement. As the first competitive matches got under way at Melbourne Park on Sunday, former Wimbledon champion Venus Williams joked that “when I came out [from quarantine], actually it was a little anticlimactic, like, ‘Isn’t there going to be a band playing or something?’ And there was not.” But Williams was still in a buoyant frame of mind after spanking Arantxa Rus – a Dutch player ranked six places above her at No 74 in the world – 6-3, 6-1. “It was great to get back on the court,” Williams said. “It’s amazing. The whole process of making this happen was really huge, to say the least. So stay positive and test negative.” How quickly the mood among the player group can turn. On arrival, many had expressed disgust over a variety of complaints. The list included dirty hotel floors, windows that did not open, and lunches that could have been scraped together from the discount counter at Aldi. If whingeing were an Olympic event, Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva would have earned a place on the podium with her repeated videos of mice running around her hotel floor. (Victoria’s police minister accused her of feeding them.) But the gold medal clearly went to Bernard Tomic’s girlfriend – the X-rated model Vanessa Sierra – who expressed dismay at being forced to wash her own hair. Never mind. Such miseries are behind everyone now – even Spain’s Paula Badosa, the one player to test positive during quarantine. If she feels up to it, Badosa will be able to enter Wednesday’s Grampians Trophy as a build-up to next Monday’s Australian Open. The escaped prisoners revelled in the chance to buy a coffee, get a haircut and mingle with locals. “I was able to go to some people from the Greek community,” Michail Pervolarakis told reporters. “They had kind of like a party.” While Pervolarakis exulted in his freedom, the reliably understated Karolina Pliskova echoed the Little Britain catchphrase “Am I bovvered?” In her own press conference, Pliskova revealed that she and husband Michal had not rushed to leave the room when their quarantine ended at 10am, but waited until noon. “The people were shocked. [They said] ‘You are the last in the hotel actually.’ ” What a boost this weekend has been for Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley. He had gambled the house by inviting 1270 players, coaches and officials to fly into Melbourne – one of the most biosecure cities in the world. Had the virus escaped into the community, the Australian Open’s brand would have been tarnished for a generation. As things stand, Tiley appears to have won his bet. And yet, news of a positive test in Perth – the far-western city not visited by tennis in 2021 – was a reminder that storms can brew quickly in this climate. The Western Australian authorities immediately instituted a five-day lockdown. During an appearance on ABC TV, Tiley was asked to reveal the most bizarre request he had received in Zoom calls with players. “It was for a kitten in the lockdown room,” he replied. “There were a few times I wouldn’t have minded putting a boxing kangaroo in there.”

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