Australian Open director Craig Tiley yesterday confirmed that everyone who attends the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of next year will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, including all the players.
That continues to leave the status of defending and nine-time champion Novak Djokovic in question.
Djokovic, who has not said whether he is vaccinated, would be attempting to win a record 21st Grand Slam singles title.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The tournament is scheduled for Jan. 17 to 30. The Victorian state government had earlier said that only people who are vaccinated would be allowed into the site for the tournament and Tiley reiterated that.
“Everyone on site — the fans, all the staff, the players — will need to be vaccinated,” Tiley said at the tournament’s official launch. “There’s been a lot of speculation about Novak’s position, he’s said it’s a private matter.”
“We would love to see Novak here, but he knows he needs to be vaccinated in order to play,” Tiley said. “He’s always said that the Australian Open is the event that puts the wind in his sails.”
The no-vaccine, no-play edict was made by the Victorian state government late last month. It means that the Australian Open is to become the first Grand Slam tournament to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for players.
“It’s been made very clear, when the [Victoria] premier [Daniel Andrews] announced several weeks ago that in order to participate at the Australian Open, to come into Victoria, you’ll need to be fully vaccinated,” Tiley said earlier on a morning television program. “Immediately we communicated that to the playing group, it is the one direction that you take that is going to ensure everyone’s safety.”
Among the top male players, Tiley said that Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev, who beat Djokovic in the final of the US Open, preventing the Serbian from completing a calendar-year Grand Slam, plan to be in Melbourne in January.
Roger Federer, who continues to recover from surgery on his right knee, has already said he will not play.
He, Nadal and Djokovic are all tied with 20 singles majors each.
Top-ranked Ash Barty of Australia is to make another attempt to win her home major in the women’s singles, while defending champion Naomi Osaka has also confirmed that she is to play, Tiley said.
He said he had been “on the phone” with Serena Williams in the past few days and Williams, who has 23 Grand Slam singles titles and needs one more to tie Margaret Court’s all-time record, is training and plans to play.
Tiley, who said he had also been in contact with Djokovic and his team, said it would be apparent by the middle of next month who will play.
International players are going through the travel visa process with the Australian government, he said, adding that entry for the Australian Open closes next month.
“I know that he wants to play, he’s clearly indicated that and he knows the conditions that he would have to undergo in order to be eligible to play,” Tiley said of Djokovic. “Entry in here will be determined by around early to the middle of December on the entry deadline, So you’ll know when a player’s entered an event ... so in the next couple of weeks you will have really good indication of where everyone’s at because at that point there’s an official list of who’s going to be here.”
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