2021 Australian Open to reopen to spectators on Thursday
This year’s opening Grand Slam tennis tournament is held with a limited number of spectators in attendance due to safety measures against COVID-19 pandemic. The allowed daily number of spectators at all courts stands at 30,000, which is half of the regular attendance, TASS reports.
However, anti-COVID-19 measures were heightened last Saturday with a snap lockdown being introduced for a period of five days, which saw no spectators at all matches.
«As Melbourne re-emerges from a five-day snap lockdown, fans can embrace life in the city once again by securing seats for blockbuster matches at the business end of the event, beginning with Thursday’s women’s singles semifinals before the first of the men’s singles semis that evening,» the statement from the tournament’s press service reads.
The statement quoted Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley as saying: «The crowd will be capped at 7,477 for each session, which is approximately 50 per cent capacity.»
«We look forward to welcoming fans back to the Australian Open for the next four days and to finishing the event safely and on a high,» Tiley said.
This year’s Australian Open is the first ever with two Russian players reaching the semifinals stage. Russia’s Aslan Karatsev defeated on Tuesday Bulgaria’s 18th-seed Grigor Dimitrov earning a berth in the semifinals, where he will meet with World’s No. 1 and eight-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
Earlier in the day, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev defeated his compatriot Andrey Rublev 7-5; 6-3; 6-2 in another quarterfinal match. Medvedev, who has not lost a single match since last November and is currently on a 19-match winning streak, is now set to play in the semifinals against 5th-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.
It is only the third time when a pair of Russian men advanced to the semifinals of the Grand Slam series tournaments. The two previous occasions both took place at the US Open - in 2001 Yevgeny Kafelnikov faced off Marat Safin and in 2006 Mikhail Youzhny clashed with Nikolay Davydenko.
The 2021 Australian Open tournament is played at Melbourne Park between February 8 and 21. It offers $61 million in prize money. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Sofia Kenin of the United States are the defending champions at the 2021 Australian Open in men's and women’s singles respectively.
