Jab or no play edict to Djokovic
NOVAK Djokovic will not be allowed to play at next year’s Australian Open if he is not fully vaccinated.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said on Wednesday any sports stars hoping to compete in Australia this summer would need to have had both doses of a TGA-approved vaccine.
“Our health advice is that when we open the borders, everyone who comes to Australia will have to be double vaccinated,” Hawke told RN Breakfast.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday he did not think unvaccinated tennis players would be given a visa to enter the country. If they did, Andrews said they would face quarantine and vaccinated players would not.
“I don’t think an unvaccinated tennis player is going to get a visa to come into this country,” he said.
“If they did get a visa, they’d probably have to quarantine for a couple of weeks when no other players will have to.
“I don’t think any other tennis player, or golfer, or Formula One driver, will even get a visa to get here.
“The vaccine doesn’t care what your tennis ranking is or how many grand slams you have won. Sorry, the virus does not care.
“Professional sport is part of that authorised worker list and they have to be double-dose vaccinated.”
Later on Wednesday, Health Minister Greg Hunt said: “Our rules are clear, they apply to everyone without fear or favour. It doesn’t matter whether you are No.1 in the world or anything else.”
Djokovic, the world’s topranked male player who is
chasing his fourth straight Australian Open title and 10th overall, has declined to reveal if he has been vaccinated, telling a Serbian newspaper it was a “private matter”.
“Things being as they are, I still don’t know if I will go to Melbourne,” he said.
“I will not reveal my status whether I have been vaccinated or not, it is a private matter and an inappropriate inquiry.
“Of course, I want to go, Australia is my most successful grand slam tournament. I want to compete, I love this sport and I am still motivated.
“I am following the situation . . . I believe there will be a lot of restrictions just like this year, but I doubt there will be too many changes.”
At the 2021 tournament, Djokovic criticised the Australian government for its mandatory two weeks quarantine.
He contracted Covid-19 last year and was panned for hosting a party at which other people also contracted the virus.
The 34-year-old last competed at the US Open, losing to Russian Daniil Medvedev in the final, but said he planned to compete in the Paris Masters, the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin and the Davis Cup before the end of 2021.
Victorian Sports Minister Martin Pakula told SEN if he “was an ATP or WTA player, I’d be getting vaccinated” because it would give them “the best opportunity to play”.