Australian Open ready today to launch after pandemic palpitations

After a three-week delay, a massive logistical mission and a handful of health scares, a very different Australian Open gets underway today with pandemic protocols providing a backdrop of caution to the action on court.
Serena Williams begins her latest campaign to win a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title on Day One while Novak Djokovic is also in action, the Serb seeking a record-extending ninth Australian Open crown. Once dubbed the ‘Happy Slam’ by Roger Federer, this year’s edition might be remembered as the ‘Nervous Slam’ after struggling to build enthusiasm in a wary host nation, but organisers hope the anxious buildup will be forgotten when the action begins.
Tennis Australia (TA) have made a Herculean effort to try to stage it safely and spent a fortune on biosecurity measures in a country where community transmission of the novel coronavirus has become rare.
It will be the third Grand Slam of the pandemic, with the US and French Opens passing safely enough.
Yet many in Melbourne regard it a pointless risk to the freedoms they earned after spending nearly four months in a brutal lockdown to crush an outbreak last year.