Latest Melbourne News

Serbia's Novak Djokovic stands on the balcony at his accommodation in Adelaide, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley defended Djokovic for appealing to Australian Open organizers to ease restrictions so players could move to private residences with tennis courts. (Morgan Sette/AAP Image via AP)

3 more COVID-19 cases linked to Australian Open, total is 10

Jan. 19, 2021 9:22 PM EST

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Three more people linked to the Australian Open have tested positive for COVID-19 in Melbourne, increasing to 10 those associated with the Grand Slam tennis tournament which begins Feb. 8. Victoria state Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville confirmed the new cases had been...

Serbia's Novak Djokovic stands on the balcony at his accommodation in Adelaide, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley defended Djokovic for appealing to Australian Open organizers to ease restrictions so players could move to private residences with tennis courts. (Morgan Sette/AAP Image via AP)

3 more COVID-19 cases linked to Australian Open arrivals

Jan. 19, 2021 6:55 AM EST

Two players are among the three latest COVID-19 cases that have emerged from testing conducted on passengers who arrived on charter flights bringing people to Melbourne for the Australian Open. Tournament director Craig Tiley said the players weren't considered to be contagious, though, and hadn't been taken out...

Italian tennis player Simone Bolelli, left, and Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez are escorted to their training session in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. The number of players in hard quarantine swelled to 72 ahead of the Australian Open after a fifth positive coronavirus test was returned from the charter flights bringing players, coaches, officials and media to Melbourne for the season-opening tennis major. (Luis Ascui/AAP Image via AP)

Lockdown: Tennis players getting on with life in Australia

Jan. 18, 2021 5:44 AM EST

With no way out, tennis players in lockdown are figuring out ways to keep themselves fit within the confines of their Melbourne hotel rooms as they prepare for the Australian Open. Angelique Kerber, who won the Australian Open in 2016, spent her birthday in quarantine on Monday. At times in the past, she's spent...

Italian tennis player Simone Bolelli, left, and Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez are escorted to their training session in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. The number of players in hard quarantine swelled to 72 ahead of the Australian Open after a fifth positive coronavirus test was returned from the charter flights bringing players, coaches, officials and media to Melbourne for the season-opening tennis major. (Luis Ascui/AAP Image via AP)

72 tennis players in lockdown after virus cases on flights

Jan. 17, 2021 10:09 PM EST

The number of players in hard quarantine swelled to 72 ahead of the Australian Open after a fifth positive coronavirus test was returned from the charter flights bringing players, coaches, officials and media to Melbourne for the season-opening tennis major. That means they won't be allowed to leave their hotel...

FILE - In this March 21, 2019 file photo, Bianca Andreescu, of Canada, left, talks with her coach Sylvain Bruneau during her match against Irina Camelia Begu, of Romania, at the Miami Open tennis tournament in Miami Gardens, Fla. Bruneau has released a statement, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021, saying he was the positive coronavirus case aboard the flight from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne and he had followed all protocols and procedures, including producing a negative test within 72 hours before the flight departure and has

Australian Open arrivals hit by 4 COVID-19 positive tests

Jan. 16, 2021 11:36 PM EST

Four coronavirus cases have been detected from charter flights carrying tennis players, coaches and officials to Melbourne for the Australian Open, forcing 47 players into strict hotel quarantine. Health authorities confirmed there'd been three positive tests for COVID-19 returned on Saturday, and another on...

Notre Dame forward Juwan Durham (11) drives to the basket against North Carolina forward Armando Bacot (5) and guard Leaky Black (1) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Chapel Hill, N.C., Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

The Latest: Memphis women's basketball cancels another game

Jan. 16, 2021 4:14 PM EST

The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world: ___ The Memphis women’s basketball game against USF scheduled for Sunday has been canceled. The Tigers have elected not to compete due to health and safety concerns. It's the sixth game this season the team has been affected...

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2021, file image made from video, a pigeon with a blue leg band stands on a rooftop in Melbourne, Australia. A U.S. bird organization said the leg band identifying the bird as a U.S. racing pigeon was counterfeit, which may save the bird from strict Australian biosecurity policies that would call for a U.S. pigeon to be killed. (Channel 9 via AP, File)

Fake US leg band gets pigeon a reprieve in Australia

Jan. 15, 2021 7:49 AM EST

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk has received a reprieve after a U.S. bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake. The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the U.S. state of Oregon,...

Spain's Rafael Nadal, center, arrives at Adelaide Airport ahead of the Australian Open tennis championship, Adelaide, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. Arriving players will serve a 14-day quarantine period ahead of the first Grand slam tennis tournament that is set to get underway on February 8 in Melbourne. (Morgan Sette/AAP Image via AP)

Players arrive for Australian Open; straight into quarantine

Jan. 15, 2021 3:02 AM EST

Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka was among the earliest arrivals into Melbourne on one of the 15 charter flights bringing players and officials into the city for the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year. And she wanted everyone to know she was pleased to be in Australia despite all...

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 12, 2019 file photo Andy Murray, of Britain, hits a forehand against Richard Gasquet, of France, during first-round play at the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament, in Mason, Ohio. Former world number one Murray's participation at the upcoming Australian Open is in doubt after the Briton tested positive for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Gary Landers, File)

Murray status for Australia in doubt after contracting virus

Jan. 14, 2021 9:45 AM EST

Andy Murray's status for the Australian Open was put in doubt Thursday after he tested positive for the coronavirus only days before his planned charter flight to Melbourne. The three-time Grand Slam champion is isolating at home near London, the tournament said in a statement. “Unfortunately this means he...

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2020, file photo, Tennys Sandgren of the U.S. reacts after losing a point to Switzerland's Roger Federer during their quarterfinal match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia. Sandgren has reportedly been allowed on an Australia-bound flight despite recently testing positive for coronavirus. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)

Sandgren gets OK to fly to Australia despite COVID-19 result

Jan. 14, 2021 2:42 AM EST

Tennys Sandgren forced an early clarification of the COVID-19 rules as the first of 15 charter flights began flying Down Under to deliver players for the Australian Open. The two-time Australian Open quarterfinalist was given a special clearance to board one of the flights from Los Angeles to Melbourne despite...

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