A top Australian official on Wednesday rejected accusations of “blackmail” made by Novak Djokovic’s father over the vaccination requirement to participate in the next Australian Open in January 2022, calling on players to “take responsibility”.
Keystone
“If you are a foreign tennis player or any foreign athlete, this is about your responsibility to the community that welcomes you,” Martin Pakula, Victoria Minister of Sport, told reporters. , where the Australian Open takes place, in Melbourne.
“It is for this reason that we ask these international tennis stars to obey the same rules as the people of the State of Victoria. It is not a question of blackmail, it is a question of ensuring that the community of the inhabitants of the State is protected ”, he concluded.
The organizers of the Australian Open confirmed 10 days ago that all players playing the tournament should be vaccinated against Covid-19, increasing the pressure on the world No.1, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, nine times titled in Melbourne and who refuses to say whether or not he is vaccinated.
Sunday, the father of the player, who could clinch a historic 21st Grand Slam title in Melbourne, estimated that his son would “probably not” participate in the Australian Open, criticizing a “blackmail” from the organizers.
Srdjan Djokovic also defended his son’s “exclusive and personal right” to be vaccinated or not, and claimed that even he did not know if “Nole” was vaccinated against Covid-19.
Asked after his defeat in the semi-finals at the Turin Masters, Djokovic has still not commented on his possible participation in the Australian Open. “We’ll see, we’ll just wait and see” what we do, he simply said at a press conference.
For the 2021 edition of the Australian Open, scheduled for February instead of January, the players and their coaches had to observe a quarantine of two weeks in hotels. The spectator gauge had been set at 30,000 per day, or 50% of the capacity, and during the tournament, a five-day confinement was decreed in the state of Victoria.
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