Andy Murray in race against time to play at Australian Open after testing positive for COVID-19

Andy Murray’s hopes of playing at the 2021 Australian Open suffered a setback after he returned a positive coronavirus test.

The former world No 1, who had pulled out of the recently concluded Delray Beach Open due to the increase in COVID-19 rates, was due to fly on a chartered flight to Melbourne this week, but Sportsmail says he “returned the positive test several days ago but is believed to be only experiencing minor symptoms”.

The report added: “There has been a minor outbreak at Roehampton’s National Tennis Centre in the past week, where the bulk of his recent training has been done, with fellow British player Paul Jubb known to have also contracted Covid”.

It remains to be seen if Murray will be allowed to travel to Melbourne at a later date as the state of Victoria had “put in place the strongest, the strictest rules that apply for tennis across the world”.

Rafael Nadal suffers Australian Open setback as his coach Carlos Moya opts not to travel Down Under

Rafael Nadal’s coach Carlos Moya had already confirmed that he won’t accompany the 20-time Grand Slam winner to the hard-court Grand Slam as “the Australian government is not authorising separate travelling and arriving at the beginning of the tournament”.

Meanwhile, world No 50 Tennys Sandgren was allowed to board a chartered flight in Los Angeles despite testing positive for coronavirus earlier in the week with Australian Open officials saying he was allowed to travel as he was no longer infectious.

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