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20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer and women's singles tennis ace Serena Williams have confirmed that they will take be participating in the 2021 Australian Open. The year's first Grand Slam in Melbourne is expected to allow 50 per cent of the fans to occupy the seats in the playing arena, Tennis Australia (TA) boss Craig Tiley said on Sunday.

Notably, Melbourne, which comes under the state of Victoria has one of the highest number of positive coronavirus cases in the country. A strict lockdown was impose in the state for nearly 3 months and so the return of fans will be give a very good boost to the sports and the people of the state.

The Swiss maestro Roger Federer reached the semi-finals of the 2020 Australian Open but then missed out on action after undergoing a second procedure on his right knee.

"Roger this morning just confirmed publicly he'll be here. Serena Williams will be here obviously trying to get Margaret Court's record, so we're excited about the players that will be here and what we'll put on," Tiley told Channel Nine.

"Thankfully, with COVID-19, I've been healthy, everybody around me as well," the 39-year-old



had recently said in a podcast.

"The Tour coming to a halt was tough to see but it's back now so that's nice," he had added.

Serena Williams, also 39, after his semi-finals loss in US Open 2020, pulled out of her second round match at the French Open due to an Achilles injury.

Tennis Australia are planning to establish bio-security 'bubbles' in cities around Australia from December and are looking to give players arriving early Down Under more tournament play opportunities to prepare for the Grand Slam which kicks start from January 18 and ends on January 31.

"We're going to have six weeks of tennis, in fact more tennis and events than ever before," said Tiley.

"(Players) will have two weeks of quarantine that they will do in cities around Australia and for those two weeks we're creating a bubble from the hotel to the courts in a training environment, not too dissimilar to what's happened with the AFL and NRL.

"By then, we expect the border to be completely open and we can move from city to city and then come down to Melbourne for the Australian Open for the last two weeks of January."
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