When the worlds elite tennis players arrived in Australia for the first grand slam tournament of 2021, it was not the usual warm welcome from the country known as being one of the friendliest on the otherwise grinding year-long world tour.

More than 70 Australian Open players , including some of the worlds best, have been confined to hotel rooms for 14 days since landing over a week ago, after some passengers on special tennis charter flights returned positive tests for coronavirus .

Spains Roberto Bautista Agut, who reached the Australian Open quarter-finals in 2019, complained the hotel confinement was the same as being in prison but with wi-fi, while world number one Novak Djokovic demanded players to be moved to private houses with tennis courts.

But for Australians, mandatory hotel quarantine which requires travellers to spend two weeks in hotel rooms immediately after arrival has been a way of life since it became one of the first countries in the world to introduce the system in March.