[Juno Reactor]

How this choice was made? No country around Australia was available for this?

I also heard 6 lucky losers will fly to Melbourne, that's gonna cost a lot of money

 

[SamTennis86]

I hadn't considered the lucky-loser situation. I'd be interested to know the average number of LL's in grand slam tournaments, as it's now not just injuries to consider but possible positive covid tests. I wonder what happens if they run out of LL's - walkovers in the first round?

 

[zebez20]

I hadn't considered the lucky-loser situation. I'd be interested to know the average number of LL's in grand slam tournaments, as it's now not just injuries to consider but possible positive covid tests. I wonder what happens if they run out of LL's - walkovers in the first round?

I assume they'll fill it with local Australian players.

 

[Matthieu]

How this choice was made?

The Al Thani family paid a lot of anonymous AO executives a lot of money.

 

[Jolyon]

How this choice was made? No country around Australia was available for this?

I also heard 6 lucky losers will fly to Melbourne, that's gonna cost a lot of money

NZers are as much virusphobiacs as Australians, and probably the other surrounding countries too.

Doha must have promised less travel restrictions and probably people there would love to watch tennis, which provides an opportunity to promote the sport and also to make money.

“I would particularly like to thank Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Karim Alami and the Qatar Tennis Federation who have led the charge to help us stage this event due to the current travel restrictions into Australia. 👇

Doha to host Australian Open 2021 men’s qualifying

Australian Open 2021 men’s qualifying will take place at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha.

ausopen.com

 

[james_von05]

LL will be selected from final stage of quali anyway so whats the problem? And they all get good sum of money...

 

[NTH3]

There's no point in having it too close to Australia because all the players that don't qualify have nothing to do there, they will go back to the challengers in Europe or home anyway.

The LLs that fly to Australia get paid, so they should find 6 players although I doubt that there will be many late withdrawals. Players would have to have a bad injury to withdraw after all the quarantine hassle and I assume even positive tests at the start of the quarantine might only increase the length of the quarantine but if they are back negative and symptom-free quickly enough, they should be alright to play because there's still another week before the AO.

 

[Rob & Stephen]

I hadn't considered the lucky-loser situation. I'd be interested to know the average number of LL's in grand slam tournaments, as it's now not just injuries to consider but possible positive covid tests. I wonder what happens if they run out of LL's - walkovers in the first round?

ON TF there is a list of what happens if they run through all the LL's that go to Australia which is:
1) Australian players who participated in AO qualifying draw;
2) Players already in AO doubles main draw who participated in AO qualifying draw; then
3) Players already in AO doubles main draw who didn't participate in the AO qualifying draw.

I don't know if they are doing the same for the men or if it is for both singles draws, it does not say:

2021 Australian Open Entry Lists post 28

 

[Nepoznati Knez]

I hadn't considered the lucky-loser situation. I'd be interested to know the average number of LL's in grand slam tournaments, as it's now not just injuries to consider but possible positive covid tests. I wonder what happens if they run out of LL's - walkovers in the first round?

It is quite a different problem from USO and FO...

In both of those, virus was spreading widely in the cities and lots of people (taxi drivers, cleaning ladies...) that come home every night can give the virus to players.

Here in Victoria, virus is super low, so contamination just can come from abroad with players and their staff or officials.
It is far less people to check and if tested every two days, with low contact occurence (same players training together) and controlled movement (5 hours out of hotel room).... they should not find any case after 2 weeks or at least 3 weeks for those initially positive.

So we should not have a galore of LL because of COVID tests.
That said we can have players in relative doubtfull shape hoping to improve/recover during quarantine and Pre Event and realizing they do not at the very late moment or of course late injuries....

First time the field (including qualifiers) is frozen one month before the tournament.

 

[lupojohn]

LL will be selected from final stage of quali anyway so whats the problem? And they all get good sum of money...

The problem is if players test positive and can't play and there's not enough lucky losers, you embarrass yourself and the event if you fill those spots with local Australian players even if it's only 2 or 3.