With less than three months to go before the 2022 Australian Open, confusion remains as to whether unvaccinated players will be able to participate in the marquee event.
Defending champion and nine-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic last week expressed uncertainty about whether he would participate in the tournament if he was required to prove his vaccination status. His comments sparked a flurry of speculation and contradictory comments by government ministers and tennis officials.
“Things like, I still don’t know if I’ll go to Melbourne or not,” Djokovic, who won the most men’s Grand Slam singles titles in a career alongside Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, told Blick Sport. “I will not disclose my status whether I have been vaccinated or not. This is a private matter and an unfair investigation.”
In June 2020, Djokovic tested positive for coronavirus After hosting a tournament in Serbia and other Balkan countries, other players and coaches were also found infected.
In response to Djokovic’s comments, Australia’s immigration minister, Alex Hawke, said last week that unvaccinated players “will have to undergo double vaccination to visit Australia.”
“This is a universal application, not just for tennis players,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio on Wednesday.
However, confusion remains. While the organizers of this year’s tournament are hoping that all players can participate, they have yet to issue any formal vaccination or quarantine guidelines for athletes. And neither the federal government of Australia nor the government of Victoria, the state where the tournament is held, have made a formal announcement about how or when international tennis players will be able to enter the country and what they can do once are or may not. allowed in.
Asked for clarification by The New York Times, the Australian federal government suggested via email that any decision regarding players’ participation in tournaments falls within the jurisdiction of the state government: “Participants at the Australian Open— May be subject to separate quarantine arrangements. , depending on their immunization status, or declared status as per state and territory requirements.”
Non-citizens are widely barred from visiting Australia, but can be admitted if they agree to a two-week quarantine, which is how players competed at the 2021 Australian Open in February.
That tournament drew a backlash from citizens for preferring to accept international tennis players over many Australian players who were stranded overseas due to travel restrictions.
In a leaked email, the Women’s Tennis Association directly refuted Hawke’s comments, insisting that players would be able to participate in the tournament if the two-week-old individual were able to take part in the tournament.
But the Victorian government denied the claim on Monday afternoon, with Sports Minister Martin Pakula telling 3AW radio that the matter would not be resolved for “a few more weeks”.
Tournament organizer Tennis Australia said in a statement on Monday that it was “working with the Victorian and federal governments on conditions for players at the Australian Open 2022 and details are expected to be confirmed soon.”
“We are optimistic that we can hold the Australian Open as close to pre-pandemic conditions as possible,” the statement said.
.