The Australian Open has hit a fresh snag with 500 people forced to quarantine after a COVID case, but the tournament's boss says it will definitely go ahead

• The Australian Open will go ahead as planned despite over 500 people going into quarantine just days before it starts.
• 507 people including 160 players were told to isolate on Wednesday after a hotel worker in Melbourne tested positive for COVID-19.
• "We're absolutely confident the Australian Open will go ahead," tournament boss Craig Tiley said.

The Australian Open will go ahead as planned despite over 500 people going into quarantine just days before the first matches are scheduled to be played, says the tournament's director, Craig Tiley.

A total of 507 people, including 160 players, were told to isolate by health officials on Wednesday after a hotel worker in Melbourne tested positive for COVID-19.

Those quarantined at the Grand Hyatt hotel are now required to remain in their accommodation until they test negative for the virus.

It isn't known exactly which players have been forced into quarantine in Melbourne.

As a result of the quarantine, play at six warm-up events and the Grand Slam draws were postponed on Thursday. The Open is due to start on Monday.

"We're absolutely confident the Australian Open will go ahead," said Tiley on Thursday afternoon. "We will be starting on Monday and we have no intention of changing times."

He added: "We know that we have a period now where we have to work with those 507 players and their staff. The probability is very low that there'll be an issue though.

"We expect them all to test negative. The plan is to continue to play [in the lead-up events] tomorrow as planned. If we have to go through this again, we'll go through this again. We have three and a half weeks of tennis to play and we'll go an as scheduled."

Tiley added that in order to fit in the postponed games before Monday, it's likely that some players will be asked to play twice in one day.

He also announced that the draw for the Open has now been moved to Friday.

"It will be a smaller version to what we've done before because the focus is to get the draw done and get it out there so everyone can start planning what they are doing Monday and who they are watching," he said.

"We will make the decisions on which halves play where by Saturday as we've got to get through quite a few matches on Friday."

On how the players effected have taken the latest setback, Tiley said: "The majority have been fantastic. When we made the calls last night and this morning they completely accepted it and have all gone and got tested."