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MELBOURNE. — A fourth person who flew in for the Australian Open tennis tournament has tested positive to Covid-19, sending even more international players into hotel quarantine.

Covid quarantine commissioner Emma Cassar yesterday confirmed a member of a broadcast team on an Australian Open charter flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne has tested positive.

A flight attendant and a tennis coach who were on the same flight are also infected with the virus, as well as Sylvain Bruneau, the coach of Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu, who entered Australia from Abu Dhabi.

All four people tested negative when they left the US.

There are 62 close contacts on the Los Angeles to Melbourne flight and 63 from the Abu Dhabi flight who will spend 14 days in hotel quarantine.

“We have delayed training (on Sunday) because a number of test results are not in yet. I can confirm that all player and training partner test results are in, but now we are waiting on the rest of the cohorts,” Dr Cassar said yesterday.

“We’re working with Tennis Australia to make sure we can get back on track tomorrow.”

Australian Open tennis chief Craig Tiley had initially insisted yesterday the Grand Slam would begin as scheduled next month, while admitting it was “not a great situation” for the 47 players who have been confined to their hotel rooms.

The tournament was thrown into disarray on Saturday when three people tested positive for Covid-19 on two of the 17 charter flights that brought players and their entourages to Melbourne and Adelaide.

None were players, although one was Bruneau, coach of Canada’s 2019 US Open winner Andreescu.

Everyone on board was considered to be close contacts and ordered not to leave their hotel rooms for the 14-day mandatory quarantine period.

It means 47 players will not be allowed out to train for five hours a day as previously agreed in the build-up to the opening Grand Slam of the year, which is due to start on February 8. — AFP.