Australian tennis insists that the Grand Slam tournament will start as planned on February 8, although players are forced to enter Melbourne for strict quarantine, which has caused outrage.

Four cases of coronavirus were found on a chartered flight, which brought tennis players, coaches, and officials to Melbourne to participate in the Australian Open, forcing 47 athletes to enter strict hotel quarantine.

Health officials confirmed that three positive tests for COVID-19 were taken on Saturday, and another test was taken on Sunday.

So far, no cases have involved players, although one of them is Sylvain Bruneau, who coaches Bianca Andreescu, number 7 in the Canadian women's world.

The Australian Tennis Association said the two affected flights from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi, arrived with 24 and 23 players respectively.

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