Australian Open considering COVID-19 contingency plans

The head of the Australian Open says various contingency plans are being considered for the Grand Slam tournament scheduled for January 2021. They include scrapping it altogether because of the coronavirus pandemic or allowing just spectators from the host country.

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley tells the Australian Associated Press that the ''worst-case scenario'' is no tournament at all next year.

Tiley is the Australian Open's tournament director. He says organizers have ''modeled everything'' and tells AP ''our best-case scenario at this point is having an AO with players that we can get in here with quarantining techniques and Australian-only fans.''

More than 30 sanctioned tennis tournaments have been postponed or canceled so far because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The French Open was moved from May to September and Wimbledon was called off entirely for the first time in 75 years.

A decision on this year's U.S. Open is expected in June.