No spectators for Singapore Tennis Open, but this may change if tournament remains free of Covid-19

• The Singapore Tennis Open, an ATP 250 indoor hard-court event, will take place here from Feb 22 to 28
• Spectators are not allowed due to the pandemic, but a mid-week review will be done
• This is to see if it can allow up to 250 live spectators for each venue for the finals
• Players and teams will be kept in “bubbles” and will not be allowed to have close and prolonged interactions with other players
• Around 200 people are expected to travel to the event from outside Singapore

SINGAPORE — The Singapore Tennis Open, an indoor hard-court tournament taking place here from Feb 22 to 28 at the Singapore Sports Hub, will not be allowing spectators at the international event for safety reasons, its organisers said on Friday (Feb 19).

However, if there are no reported cases of Covid-19 at the tournament and Singapore's Covid-19 situation remains under control until the middle of next week, the organisers may permit public spectators of up to 250 for each arena during the finals week.

The tournament’s organising chairman Lim Teck Yin said on Friday (Feb 19) at a virtual media conference: “Right now, this is classified as a closed-door event, but notwithstanding, we would like to open the door for a review midway in the tournament to see if conditions allow us to bring spectators to come and attend the event on its finals weekend.”

Since the start of the pandemic, the first live international sport event to be held in Singapore was the One Championship mixed-martial arts competition last October. Other competitions such as the Singapore Premier League have also allowed public spectators.

Asked why spectators were not permitted from the start for the Singapore Tennis Open, Mr Lim said that the tournament was originally intended to allow spectators, until the spate of Covid-19 outbreaks around the world led Singapore’s authorities to tighten safe-distancing regulation during Chinese New Year.

However, having a mid-week review signifies an “agility and adaptation to the prevailing” coronavirus situation, he said.

The decision to allow spectators will depend on whether the competition — as well as Singapore’s pandemic situation — is free of Covid-19, he added.

Mr Lim, who is also chief executive officer of national sports body Sports Singapore, said that no effort has been spared in keeping the event safe. 

Foreign and Singapore players will be kept in their own “micro-bubbles”, which means that they will be permitted to travel only among three places: The airport, hotel and the competition venue. Unnecessary interactions between different entourages of players will also be minimised. 

This means that players and their teams have to use separate dining rooms from other groups at their hotels, as well as different gyms and training areas.

Contact between event organisers, overseas officials, and the entourages will also be highly limited.

All players will undergo daily Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction tests throughout their stay in Singapore, while staff members, officials and volunteers here will have to undergo daily antigen rapid tests.

Around 50 players have arrived in Singapore in time for the qualifiers taking place on Feb 20 and 21 — many recently came from the Australia Open in Melbourne.

They will be isolated upon arrival until they receive a negative test result and they will need to download the TraceTogether contact-tracing mobile application during their stay here.

So far, there has been zero Covid-19 positive result from these players’ tests, Mr Lim said.

If someone tests positive for Covid-19 during the tournament, Mr Lim said that there are several contingency protocols in place, with scenarios planned for an infection no matter where the player may be, even during a match.

Fans may tune in to the live coverage of the Singapore Tennis Open on Mediacorp’s streaming site meWatch.

Mediacorp, the event’s official broadcaster, will have a live broadcast of the finals on Feb 28 on Channel 5.

SIGNIFICANT SPORTS EVENT FOR SINGAPORE

The Singapore Tennis Open took around two months to plan, including the extra arrangements needed due to the pandemic, Mr Lim said.

“I do want to impress on everybody that if it were not for the fact that we have the capability in Singapore to organise something like this at such a short notice, we would not have taken it on.

“Everything from the hotel to the production companies to the people who are doing the court flooring — the capability exists in Singapore. And I think this demonstrates Singapore's readiness to be able to host events of this stature safely.”

Hosting the tournament, which is an event on the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) World Tour 250 calendar, is part of a bigger plan for Singapore to bring tennis here as both a spectator sport and a way to develop the domestic tennis scene, he added.

Ever since ATP announced the tournament in January, Mr Lim said that there have been other parties who have reached out to discuss the possibility of hosting future events here.

“I think it just demonstrates the importance of being very clear in our positioning, with all the relevant promoters as well as rights owners, that Singapore's interested.”