And although this is a yearly ritual for thousands of people - one of the defining events of the Australian summer - the 2021 Open is layered in significance.

Not only will it be the first large-scale international showcase event complete with crowds to go ahead since, well, the 2020 Open, it will also be a showcase of Australia's achievements in overcoming COVID-19.

It's a feat worth celebrating - Australia's ability to confidently open the stadium doors in the knowledge spectators will be safe from the virus that is still ravaging other parts of the planet.

But it's understandable there is a parallel seam of anxiety running alongside the Open, one that has threaded through all commentary about it in the lead-up. Because this tournament - the fact that it is going ahead at all - has been hard-won, and it will be a chance to show the world how effective Australia's response has been to the pandemic.

READ MORE:

And Victorians in particular have sacrificed more than most - not only through six weeks of extra-harsh lockdown while the rest of the country emerged into semi-normality, but also through the loss of two of its flagship sporting events, the AFL grand final, and a Melbourne Cup replete with cheering crowds.

Opening up to the city will be, for some in Victoria, a source of resentment and anxiety - the possibility of reversing everything that has come before it during the toughest months of 2020.

But for many others, both in Victoria and around the country, the Australian Open will be a source of national pride.

Many are still understandably frustrated by the concept of hundreds of players and personnel associated with the tournament converging on Australia while many more thousands of ordinary (read: non-professional athlete) citizens remained stranded overseas.

But the strict measures imposed on international tennis players arriving from around the world has shown the world that Australia is not willing to compromise its almost-COVID-free status.

Tennis watchers throughout the world have already had a taste of our uncompromising approach to controlling the virus. All arriving players were required to quarantine for 14 days, and those unlucky enough to have shared a flight with someone who tested positive were not allowed outside their rooms to train.

And, while cautious excitement for the Open built steadily last week, Perth emerged from a snap five-day lockdown - imposed in response to a single hotel quarantine worker testing positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, three days into Perth's lockdown, on the other side of the country, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews tightened restrictions in Melbourne, also in response to a single hotel quarantine worker testing positive.

And all the while, chief executive of Tennis Australia Craig Tiley has remained resolute that the Open would start on February 8, as scheduled. "This is not about no risk," Tiley said last week. "There's no such thing as no risk. There's always going to be risk. The objective is to minimise it as much as possible."

This has, of course, been Australia's objective all along, sporting events be damned.

But with the country so primed to respond to even the smallest of threats, now is the time to sit back and enjoy what could almost pass as a normal summer tennis match.