Novak Djokovic To Miss Miami Open Over Lack Of Covid Vaccination

Novak Djokovic won’t play on the Miami Open after failing to obtain a waiver to enter the United States regardless of not being vaccinated for Covid-19. Tournament director James Blake informed The Tennis Channel on Saturday that the world primary, a six-time Miami champion, was denied entry regardless of the most effective effort of match officers. “We did all we could. We tried to talk to the government but it’s out of our hands,” Blake mentioned forward of the beginning of the match subsequent week.

“We tried and he wasn’t able to play, same result as he had in Indian Wells.”

Djokovic was not allowed a spot within the ongoing Masters 1000 occasion within the California desert.

“We’d love to have him and he’s our greatest champion, six times here, so we’d obviously love to have him here but unfortunately that’s way above my pay grade,” Blake mentioned.

Djokovic has missed different occasions resulting from being unvaccinated towards Covid, however was allowed to compete on this yr’s Australian Open and received his tenth crown at Melbourne for his twenty second profession Grand Slam title — degree with Spain’s Rafael Nadal for the all-time males’s file.

“We exhausted all the options that we know of that we can handle,” Blake mentioned. “Hopefully Novak will be back next year.”

US authorities are anticipated to ease vaccination entry necessities in May, which might enable Djokovic to play on the US Open.

“Hopefully he will be back probably in all the later events in the States, Cincinnati and the US Open,” Blake mentioned.

Djokovic has not performed in Miami since a fourth-round exit in 2019.

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