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However, with the pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, tennis authorities have decided on an alternate course of action that will enable these professional athletes to continue with their lives playing sport.

As per the tentative plan, the qualified players will travel on charter flights from Dubai to Melbourne to serve the mandated quarantine period ahead of the season-opening Grand Slam. People in the know, however, insisted that the actual picture will be clearer within the next couple of days and following a virtual joint meeting of tennis officials that has been scheduled later on Sunday.

The tennis plan of action at the moment is to have the WTA 500 tournament in the first week of the season at the International Tennis Complex of Zayed Sports City from January 5 to 13 followed by the Australian Open qualifiers at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium from January 9 to 13.

The WTA has attempted a rebrand of itself with women’s professional top-level events now getting renamed as the WTA Masters, WTA 500 and WTA 250 in close consonance with the naming structure of the ATP Masters 1000, ATP 500 and ATP 250.

As per the testing schedule agreed upon for the Australian Open qualifiers, there will be at least 48 matches held per day on 10 courts of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium in Al Garhoud and by the end of the week, the men’s and women’s categories will see a total of 32 players advancing for the main competition in Melbourne.

https://gulfnews.com/sport/uae-sport...ing-1.75873316