After much controversy and at significant cost to the organisers, the Australian swing of the tennis season is, finally, about to get under way.
The ATP Cup should have been the tour’s first event back in early January. COVID-19 has seen it reduced in size – there are only 12 teams involved instead of the planned 24 – but many of the biggest stars of the men’s game will take to the courts of the Rod Laver Arena and the John Cain Arena at Melbourne Park in the coming days.
Just how they perform is very much open to question.
Most of them will be playing their first matches since November and there has never been a lead-in to a season like this.
Upon arrival in Australia, players had to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks. Most were allowed out for five hours a day to practise, train and eat. But the unlucky ones were confined to their rooms for a full 14 days.
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