Australian Open 2021: how to watch the tennis tournament on TV in the UK, full schedule, and when is the draw?

The Australian Open is scheduled to get underway next week (Getty Images)

The world’s best tennis place are in Melbourne gearing up for the first grand slam tournament of the year.

Preparation for the tournament in Melbourne has been far from ideal with hundreds of players and support staff required to quarantine amid strict coronavirus measures.

A host of the sport’s top talent are to miss the tournament altogether, with Andy Murray one of the most high profile casualties of the tournament’s tight restrictions.

Despite the difficulties tournament organisers are adamant that the tournament will go ahead.

Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming tournament.

How to watch in the UK

In the UK Eurosport have exclusive rights to live coverage of the event.

Sky subscribers with an entertainment package have access to Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2, while Virgin customers are required to sign up for either the Mix, Full House or V.VIP packages.

Is it possible to stream the tournament online?

You can tune in online to watch every minute of action on the Eurosport Player.

A monthly subscription will cost you £6.99 a month while an full year’s access will set you back £39.99.

Amazon Prime subscribers are eligible for one free week of access to the streaming platform, after which they will be required to pay the weekly subscription fee of £6.99.

When does the tournament take place?

The tournament runs from February 8 to February 21.

Australian Open schedule:

8 February – Men’s and women’s singles first round

9 February – Men’s and women’s singles first round

10 February – Men’s and women’s singles second round

11 February – Men’s and women’s singles second round

12 February – Men’s and women’s singles third round

13 February – Men’s and women’s singles third round

14 February – Men’s and women’s singles fourth round

15 February – Men’s and women’s singles fourth round

16 February – Men’s and women’s singles quarter-finals

17 February – Men’s and women’s singles quarter-finals

18 February – Women’s semi-finals and first men’s semi-final

19 February – Second men’s semi-final

20 February – Women’s final

21 February – Men’s final

When’s the draw?

The draw, which had been scheduled for 7am UK time on Thursday, has been pushed back to the early hours of Friday.

Could the tournament be cancelled or delayed?

Australian Open organisers remain confident of starting the grand slam tournament on schedule on Monday.

No matches in the six warm-up events being held at Melbourne Park were played on Thursday after an employee at one of the hotels used for the two weeks of quarantine tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday.

Tournament director Craig Tiley told a press conference on February 4: “This does give us three days for the lead-in events to complete. Obviously tomorrow we’ve got some challenging weather, so we’ve got to work around that as well, and the intention is to start the Australian Open on Monday.

“We’re absolutely confident the Australian Open’s going to go ahead. We know we’ve got a period now we’ve got to work through with those players and their staff that needed tests. The probability is very low that there’s going to be any issue, we fully expect them all to test negative.

“If we have to go through this again, we’ll go through this again. We’ve got another three and a half weeks of tennis and fully expect to keep to the original schedule once we get past today.”