Melbourne: All players at the Australian Open must be vaccinated, tournament chief Craig Tiley confirmed today, piling more pressure on world number one Novak Djokovic, who has refused to reveal if he has been inoculated.
Melbourne, where January’s Grand Slam is held, has spent more than 260 days under lockdown during the pandemic and the government of the state of Victoria made clear last month there would be no concessions for unvaccinated players.
Tiley said the playing group know they must get the jab to compete at Melbourne Park.
Need to be vaccinated
“There’s a lot of speculation about vaccination and just to be really clear, when the (Victoria) premier announced that everyone on site... will need to be vaccinated, we made that clear to the playing group,” he told Channel Nine television.
“All the playing group understands it, our patrons will need to be vaccinated, all the staff working at the Australian Open will need to be vaccinated.
This includes nine-time champion Djokovic.
Tiley said the Serbian superstar, who would be gunning for a record 21st Grand Slam singles title if he competes in Melbourne, “has said that he views this as a private matter for him”.
“We would love to see Novak here. He knows that he’ll have to be vaccinated to play here,” he added.
“He’s won the Australian Open nine times, I think he’d love to make it double digits and win it 10 times.”
Djokovic said this month he would await official confirmation on the requirements from Tennis Australia before making a decision.
What ifs
“I am going to decide on whether I go to Australia after I see an official statement from Tennis Australia,” he said on the eve of the Paris Masters.
“There has been no official announcement or statement and until that is out I won’t be talking about this any more. I do not want to be part of the stories about the assumptions and what ifs.”
Just 50 percent of players were fully vaccinated six weeks ago, but it shot up to 80 percent after the Victoria government’s announcement, Tiley said, adding that it was “continuing to track towards 100 percent”.
The Australian Open went ahead this year, but players were forced to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine, crowds were restricted and a five-day snap lockdown was called mid-event.
