"Djokovic may only play the French Open this year. You have to be vaccinated for the others" says Sinner's coach Piatti

Novak Djokovic has not yet been confirmed for the Australian Open presumably because of his unwillingness to get vaccinated.

Obviously, none of that is confirmed as Djokovic never admitted to being vaccinated or not maintaining his stance that it's a private matter. He did however spoke in favor of a non-vaccine mandate for the tennis tour framing it as something that should be a choice and not mandated. Unfortunately for him, it has been mandated in Australia which is why his participation is in doubt.

He elected to skip over the ATP Cup which further raised suspicion about whether he would play at the Australian Open. Even chief Craig Tiley said yesterday that he expects everything to be known in the next couple of days. Tiley admitted that flights are still scheduled to income with players so Djokovic might be on one of them. He also said he did not know whether Djokovic will show up or not.

Sinner's coach Riccardo Piatti was asked about the situation and he made an interesting observation that might disappoint a lot of Djokovic fans. He said:

"Djokovic may play only one Grand Slam this year: French Open. You must be vaccinated to play in UK (Wimbledon) and outside Europe (Aus Open, US Open)."

It's not yet confirmed whether Wimbledon and US Open will enforce vaccine mandates but the governments of these countries have a strong pro-vaccine stance which might signal things trending in that direction. The Indian Wells and Miami Masters have already pondered with a vaccina mandate which could be trouble for Djokovic as well.

It seems like the Serbian might need to get vaccinated in order to play normally at the Tour but whether he will conform to that remains to be seen.