Even with the strictest quarantine rules, how anyone thought it a good idea to import hundreds of people from the world's COVID hotspots, where second and third waves are rampant, is beyond comprehension.

Mr Andrews, who was riding high in the opinion polls despite imposing one of the world's toughest lockdowns during his state's second wave, has dropped the ball with the Australian Open decision. For the Victorians stuck in NSW since the border was slammed shut on New Year's Day, the sight of planeloads of tennis players and their entourages descending on Melbourne must leave a particularly sour taste.

And the whining that has followed dozens of them into hard lockdown really sticks in the craw. One day it was demands for quarantine in private homes with tennis courts and better food, the next a complaint from one of the girlfriends that she now had to wash her own hair, something she'd never done before.

And it's not just Victorians raising eyebrows at this breathtaking display of entitlement.

With so many local events having to be cancelled or postponed because of the virus, the well of sympathy for the international tennis crowd has run dry.

Here in the Shoalhaven, we've seen show after show put on ice because organisers don't want to take public health risks or expose their generally older, more vulnerable volunteers to infection. We've seen the Blessing of the Fleet Festival in Ulladulla canned for the second year in a row - a huge disappointment to the community.

At least one of our own - James Cater from Shoalhaven Heads - is still stuck in, of all places, Siberia, unable to get home. And those of us at home have had to shrink our travel horizons.

So, no, there's little or no sympathy for the tennis divas right now.

But there should be immense pride in how our sacrifices have helped us ride out the pandemic better than most countries. We've accepted and generally abided by lockdown without too much protest, we've masked up, we've come forward for testing, we've adapted.

Our tennis guests need to do the same.