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The Spanish Paula Badosa announced this Thursday that she tested positive for covid-19, becoming the first tennis player identified as infected among the scheduled participants at the Australian Open (February 8-21).
“I have bad news: as you know, since I arrived in Melbourne I have been confined to the room. Today, on the 7th day of quarantine, I have tested positive for covid,” the player wrote in a message in Spanish and English on Twitter.
“I am with symptoms and I hope to recover as soon as possible. I have been transferred to another hotel, where I will remain isolated and under follow-up. These are hard moments. Thank you very much for the support. I will come back stronger,” said the 67th world player.
The health authorities had announced that four players tested positive for COVID-19, but without revealing their identities. Paula Badosa would be the fifth.
More than a thousand people came to Australia last week to take part in the first Grand Slam of the tennis season.
The first positive cases occurred among passengers on the flights who were not tennis players, which led to 72 players being considered ‘contact cases’ and being in strict quarantine, without authorization to leave their hotel rooms.
All participants in the Australian Open, which begins on February 8, have to spend two weeks of quarantine in their hotel, but those who are not positive or ‘contact cases’ are allowed to have five hours a day to train.