After they arrived in Melbourne, Rajeev Ram and Barbora Krejcikova received notice that passengers on their respective charter flights had tested positive for the coronavirus. The two were among the 72 players then forced to enter a 14-day “hard quarantine” in their hotel rooms, denied the opportunities to go outside and practice that were afforded other players.
Roughly five weeks later, Ram and Krejcikova proved their resilience by winning the Australian Open mixed doubles title, beating the Australian team of Matthew Ebden and Samantha Stosur 6-1, 6-4 in the final on Saturday night.
“I mean, even though we were in hard lockdown for 14 days and we didn’t have an opportunity to play, after that you just go out there and you do your best,” Krejcikova said.