Unvaccinated top-ranked tennis star out of one other U.S. event as a result of journey restrictions
Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked males’s tennis participant, will miss one other U.S. event subsequent week — this time the Miami Open — after officers denied him a vaccination exemption.
Over a 12 months after the unvaccinated tennis star was pressured to overlook the 2022 Australian Open — and months after he withdrew from the U.S. Open due as a result of journey restrictions requiring worldwide guests to be vaccinated — Djokovic will as soon as once more miss a high-profile event as a result of his anti-vax stance.
“We tried to get Novak Djokovic to be allowed to get an exemption, however that wasn’t capable of occur,” event director James Blake stated in an interview with the Tennis Channel.
“Clearly, we’re one of many premier tournaments on the earth, we’d prefer to have one of the best gamers that may play. We did all that we may. We tried to speak to the federal government, however that’s out of our palms.”
Djokovic’s exemption was denied regardless of lobbying on his behalf by Florida senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and Governor Ron DeSantis, who beforehand said he would “run a ship from the Bahamas” for Djokovic to ensure that him to attend the Miami Open, CNN reported.
Djokovic additionally skipped this month’s Indian Wells Masters occasion in California after his request for exemption was denied previous to that prestigious event as nicely.
Nevertheless, the Miami Open could be the final U.S. event Djokovic misses as a result of his vaccination standing, because the coverage barring non-vaccinated non-citizens is predicted to be peeled again when the federal government lifts its Covid-19 emergency restrictions on Could 11, which might permit Djokovic to attend the U.S. Open in August.