Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa tests positive for coronavirus

Paula Badosa (Peter Menzel, Wikimedia Commons)

According to Jessie Yeung of CNN on Friday, tennis player Paula Badosa of Begur, Spain has tested positive for coronavirus while in Australia, preparing for the Australian Open. Badosa is the first tennis player to publicly state that he or she has the disease since the wave of tennis players arrived to Melbourne to quarantine. The 2021 Australian Open is set to start on February 8. 

Badosa, who is a native of New York and moved to Barcelona at age seven, is reportedly not well, and has symptoms. She has been taken to a health hotel where she is being monitored by doctors.

Prior to her positive test, Badosa, who is 23 years of age, was critical of the Australian rules regarding quarantining. According to IOL, she did not like the fact she was staying in a room “with no windows and no air.”

Badosa is currently ranked 67th in the world. Her greatest grand slam achievement to date was reaching the fourth round of the 2020 French Open before losing to Laura Siegemund of Germany 7-5, 6-2. In the grand slam event from the fall, Badosa beat two grand slam champions–American Sloane Stephens 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 6-3.

Upon arriving to Melbourne, Sylvain Bruneau of Canada, the coach for Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu, also tested positive for coronavirus. In Australia at this time, there have been 28755 cases of coronavirus and 909 deaths.

In recent days many Australian Open players have complained about the strict quarantining rules in place. Among them have been Roberto Bautista Agut, who compared the experience to being in a “jail,” Novak Djokovic, who made a list of player demands while they were quarantining, Yulina Putintseva, who complained about the lack of fresh air and a mouse in her hotel room, and Italian Fabio Fognini, who complained about the quality of the food. It has also been reported that Bernard Tomic’s supermodel girlfriend Vanessa Sierra has complained about the fact she has to wash her hair herself. Well, that complaint is downright ridiculous.

The Australian Government has rules in place for a reason, and need to be praised for not giving in to players’ demands. The best line came from Victoria Premier Dan Andrews who stated, “People are free to provide a list of demands but the answer is no… There’s no special treatment here.”

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