As the world’s tennis players arrive in Australia to start the 2022 tennis season, three more players have tested positive for coronavirus. They are Anastasia Pavyluchenkova of Russia according to the Associated Press, Aslan Karatsev of Russia according to Dzevad Mesic of Tennis World, and Benoit Paire of France according to marca.com.
Pavlyuchenkova and Karatsev had notable performances in grand slam tournaments in 2021. Pavlyuchenkova reached the final of the 2021 French Open before losing to Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. Karatsev meanwhile reached the semifinal of the 2021 Australian Open, before losing to Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. In the process, he became only the fifth qualifier to reach the semifinals in the history of the men’s singles grand slam events.
In testing positive, Karatsev will no longer be able to participate in the ATP Cup which starts on Saturday. Russia will be represented by Daniil Medvedev and Roman Safiullin as Andrey Rublev has also tested positive for coronavirus.
Paire meanwhile is extremely frustrated with his positive test. On Twitter he stated, “Hello, my name is Benoit Paire, and for the 250th time, I test positive for COVID-19. I honestly can’t deal with this COVID-19 s**t anymore.”
With Austria no longer participating in the ATP Cup, they are being replaced by France. The French will be represented by Ugo Humbert and Arthur Rinderknech. However, Paire is ranked 46th in the world, compared to Rinderknech, who is 58th. The other player who could have represented France is the 21st ranked Gael Monfils, who decided to participate in the ATP events in Auckland instead according to Atri Bhatt of Essentially Sports.
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