Novak Djokovic has expressed doubts over playing in the Australian Open in January after officials said unvaccinated players are unlikely to be allowed to enter the country for the event.
The 34-year-old, a record nine-time champion in Melbourne, refused to reveal his vaccination status but implied the announcement made it less likely he would compete.
Djokovic told Serbia’s Blic: “Things being as they are, I still don’t know if I will go to Melbourne.
“I will not reveal my status whether I have been vaccinated or not, it is a private matter and an inappropriate inquiry.
“People go too far these days in taking the liberty to ask questions and judge a person. Whatever you say ‘Yes, no, maybe, I am thinking about it’, they will take advantage.”
The state of Victoria, which is scheduled to host the first major of 2022 in January, has introduced a vaccination mandate for professional athletes as it battles a resurgence of Covid-19 cases.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday told reporters: “I don’t think an unvaccinated tennis player is going to get a visa to come into this country and if they did get a visa they’d probably have to quarantine for a couple of weeks.”
In May Djokovic said he hoped vaccination would not be made mandatory for players on the tour, insisting it ought to come down to freedom of choice.
Djokovic was forced to apologise after staging a charity event in Serbia in 2020 with no social-distancing measures in place, after which a number of players, including Djokovic himself, tested positive for the virus.
At this year’s Australian Open, his demands for greater freedom for players undergoing mandatory quarantine prior to the tournament in Melbourne fell on deaf ears, with officials maintaining he would get “no special treatment”.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday that international travel to and from the country would resume from November 1 for citizens and permanent residents, but emphasised “no decision to allow other visa-holders” had yet been made.
Tournament organisers had to overcome many obstacles to hold the event this year, with the start date pushed back three weeks and players forced to quarantine for a fortnight on arrival in the country.
Tennis Australia insisted in May that the tournament would proceed in January 2022.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel