Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley confirmed on Saturday that all players must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to compete in January’s Grand Slam.
It’s only added to the intrigue surrounding world No.1 and three-time defending champion Novak Djokovic, who is yet to reveal his vaccination status.
“There’s been a lot of speculation around Novak’s position,” Tiley said at the Australian Open launch.
“He 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.”
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Djokovic was asked about the Australian Open’s vaccine stance after his semi-final loss to Alexander Zverev in the ATP World Tour Finals.
“We’ll see. We’ll have to wait and see,” the Serbian said.
“I haven’t been talking to them (Tennis Australia), to be honest.
“I was just waiting to hear what the news is going to be and now that I know we’ll just have to wait and see.”
The 34-year-old is level with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on 20 Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic is a record nine-time Australian Open winner.