Three months before the Australian Open (January 17 to 30), the Australian government authorities repeat the imperative need to be vaccinated to participate, even if the WTA has mentioned a scenario with a previous fortnight. A red line that casts doubt on the participation of the no 1 world Novak Djokovic.
According to the ATP and WTA, interviewed by AFP, nearly two out of three players and more than 60% of female players are vaccinated to date.
For a week now, from local authorities to the federal government, the message has been firm: no vaccine, no visa. “I do not believe that an unvaccinated player will obtain a visa”, pronounced mid-October Daniel Andrews, the Prime Minister of the State of Victoria, where Melbourne is located – which has just come out of more than 260 days of confinement cumulative, which makes it one of the longest-standing cities in the world.
“The virus doesn’t care how many you rank or how many Grand Slams you’ve won. You have to get vaccinated to protect yourself and others, ”he pleaded.
A position supported by several federal ministers in the following days. “I don’t have a message for Novak [Djokovic], I have a message for anyone who wishes to come to Australia: he will have to be doubly vaccinated ”, hammered at the Immigration Department. “Our rules apply without exception. It doesn’t matter if you are no 1 world or anyone else, ”we insisted in Health.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has since raised the possibility of granting exemptions, as has been the case for skilled workers since the start of the pandemic. But Daniel Andrews brushed off that possibility.
“I want to make it very clear that the state of Victoria will not be asking for an exemption for unvaccinated players. So it will not be granted. And the problem is resolved, ”he said on Wednesday. Question of consistency, he explains: “I am not going to ask spectators and tournament employees to be vaccinated when players are not. “
Other scenarios considered?
The WTA, in particular with Tennis Australia, which is organizing the first Grand Slam of the season, informed the players of a more open health protocol under discussion, according to an email revealed by a specialist journalist on Sunday.
A two-tier system is exposed: rigorous with the unvaccinated, flexible with the others. In summary, for the unvaccinated, “a compulsory quarantine of fourteen days at the hotel” and “regular tests”, not to mention the question of contact cases “not yet 100% stopped”.
For the vaccinated, on the other hand, a “complete freedom of movement” on condition of presenting two negative tests, one in the 72 hours preceding the departure and one in the 24 hours following the arrival.
But the WTA then asked for discretion, the Australian federation “still working with the government”.
Contacted by AFP, the latter then said “optimistic about the possibility of organizing” the tournament “in conditions as close as possible to those pre-pandemic”.
Reluctance
The voice that finds the most echo is that of the no 1 worldwide, Novak Djokovic, who has publicly taken a stand against vaccines in the spring of 2020 and refuses to disclose his vaccination status.
“I don’t know if I’m going to go to Australia,” the record holder in Melbourne (9) told the Serbian newspaper. Blic ten days ago. The reach of the Australian Grand Slam is however historic for Djokovic: to overtake, with a 21e major trophy, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
“Personally, I am opposed to vaccination, and I would not want to be forced to be able to travel,” he said in April 2020. A year later, he was still pleading for “freedom of choice”.
“It’s a private matter. It seems incredible to me that society judges you on the basis of a vaccine, ”said the Serbian.
A reluctant time, the no 3rd world Stefanos Tsitsipas, who argued about his youth, or the French Gilles Simon decided to extend their arm.
Since the United States Open in early September, the ex-no World 1 Victoria Azarenka, for her part, considered “odd that spectators are obliged to be vaccinated and not the players”, and thus “inevitable that it becomes compulsory”. Andy Murray, also ex-no 1 in the world, saw him as “a responsibility as players who travel around the world”.