"95 % of players will be vaccinated" says Australian Open chief Craig Tiley on vaccination rates

The vaccination rate of ATP players however around 50 % for the majority of the past few months but after the Australian Open brought up a possible vaccination mandate for the event the number soared. In a recent interview, Australian Open chief Craig Tiley spoke about the vaccination mandate taking pride in the fact that about 85 % are vaccinated as of now.

He said:

“Today more than 85 per cent are (vaccinated) and we take a lot of credit for that because we put a vaccination requirement on it. We think by the time we get to January it will be between 90-95 per cent vaccinated because if you’re not, you cannot play.”

When asked about the percentage of players that won't be vaccinated Tiley said there were “one or two players” who had medical exemptions from vaccination but the exemptions were in line with Victoria’s health rules:

“And so it should be, because there shouldn’t be any preferential treatment coming into the state compared to what the regular community is going through."

Tiley also spoke about Novak Djokovic:

“Novak has won nine Australian Opens, I’m sure he wants to get to 10. He’s on 20 Grand Slam titles as is Rafa Nadal, who is coming, and Roger Federer. One of them is going to surpass the other and I don’t think Novak would want to leave that ... to someone else.”