A major warm-up tournament for the Australian Open was on Tuesday canceled, with organizers blaming uncertainty over COVID-19 rules that players would face in Melbourne.
It is the second year that the Kooyong Classic, normally played in the weeks leading up to the season-opening Grand Slam, has been scrapped because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kooyong president Adam Cossar said he was disappointed that the event could not take place in January next year, but hoped it would return the following year.
Photo: Reuters
Players are still awaiting clarification on whether they need to be fully vaccinated to participate at the Australian Open, also in Melbourne, and other tennis tournaments in the country.
Such a requirement would cast doubt on nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic’s ability to defend his title — he is one of many players who have refused to share their vaccination status.
A leaked WTA e-mail this week recommended that unvaccinated players could take part provided that they completed 14 days in hotel quarantine.
However, players with two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine would enjoy “complete freedom of movement.”
However, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews — the state where the Grand Slam is held — said that he wanted all players to be fully vaccinated.
EMMA RADUCANU
Emma Raducanu has said that people need to be patient as the 18-year-old looks to establish herself on the WTA Tour after her fairytale US Open triumph last month.
While Raducanu stunned the sporting world when she won the Flushing Meadows title as a qualifier, she was knocked out in the second round at Indian Wells and is still without a coach.
Yesterday, Raducanu was to face Slovenia’s Polona Hercog in her opening match of the Transylvania Open in Romania and said it was important to temper expectations.
“I feel like everyone should just be a little patient with me,” Raducanu told reporters on Monday.
“I am going to find my tennis; I just need a little bit of time. Things have happened rather fast, I am learning a lot,” she added.
“I just need to be patient with myself, not expect too much,” she said. “I am learning to accept it is not so smooth. In the long term, I know it will be up and down.”
COURMAYEUR LADIES OPEN
On Monday in Courmayeur, Italy, Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov of Spain defeated Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-4 in 2 hours, 13 minutes to advance to the round of 16.
Additional reporting by staff writer and Reuters
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier