NO. 1 DJOKOVIC REMAINS IN QUESTION FOR AUSSIE OPEN
Australian Open chief Craig Tiley confirmed that everyone who attends the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of 2022 will need to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, including all the players.
That continues to leave the status of defending champion Novak Djokovic in question. Djokovic, who has refused to say if he’s vaccinated, would be attempting to win a record 21st Grand Slam singles title and his 10th at Melbourne Park.
The tournament is scheduled for Jan. 17-30.
The Victorian state government had earlier said only vaccinated persons would be allowed into the site for the tournament.
“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. He’s always said that the Australian Open is the event that puts the wind in his sails.”
Among the top male players, Tiley, who is the tournament director, said Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev, who beat Djokovic in the final of the U.S. Open, preventing the Serbian player from completing a calendar-year Grand Slam, plan to be in Melbourne in January.
Top-ranked Ash Barty of Australia will make another attempt to win her home major, and defending champion Naomi Osaka has also confirmed she’ll play, Tiley said.
More tennis
A year ago, Casper Ruud had just cracked the top 30 in the rankings. As the eighth and final qualifier for the ATP Finals, the 22-year-old Norwegian has joined top-ranked Djokovic, Medvedev and No. 3 Alexander Zverev in the semifinals of the elite seasonending event at Turin, Italy.
Ruud showed off aggressive tactics in the decisive tiebreaker and served an ace on his second match point in a 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) victory over Andrey Rublev in his final round-robin match to secure his unexpected spot in the last four.
Hockey
The San Diego Gulls (4-61-0) scored twice in ther first and second periods and then held on for a 4-3 AHL victory at San Jose (5-5-1-0). Brogan
Rafferty and Vinni Lettieri scored in the opening 20 minutes while Jacob Perrault and Bryce Kindopp scored in the middle period.
Baseball
San Diego native Billy Eppler embraced the bright lights of the big city, promising on his first day as Mets general manager to pursue pricey free agents and create a perennial World Series contender. Hired late Thursday by owner Steve Cohen and team President Sandy Alderson, Eppler was introduced Friday and tasked with the responsibility of reversing an underachieving organization coming off consecutive losing seasons, management turmoil that included an arrest and the loss of a talented star pitcher to free agency.
Texas manager Chris
Woodward got a contract extension that goes through the 2023 season and includes a club option for another year after that.
Soccer
FIFA changed the World Cup qualifying format for the intercontinental playoffs to be single-leg games at a neutral venue. The winners of the matches will earn the final two spots at next year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann was cleared to play against AC Milan in the Champions League when a two-game ban was halved on appeal.
Death
Encinitas native and resident Zane Timpson, a popular pro skateboarder who appeared as a teenager in the “Camp Woodward” reality television show, died. He was 26. His parents confirmed his death on social media and said he died Nov. 12 after suffering chest pains while traveling with his girlfriend on vacation.
Also
The 10th-ranked UC San Diego men’s water polo team (14-8) dominated Concordia (8-16) in its opening Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) Championship match as it rolled to a 21-7 victory at UC Davis.
NASCAR will return both practice and qualifying to its weekend schedule for all three national series in 2022. The on-track activity had been mostly scrapped the last two seasons during the pandemic.