Ruud dubs Djokovic Indian Wells ban ‘silly’: “I wouldn't have felt threatened by Novak if he was here unvaccinated”

Casper Ruud has called the Novak Djokovic Indian Wells ban 'silly' because he would have not felt threatened by the Serbian if he were in Indian Wells.

Djokovic was essentially banned from entry into the US due to his unvaccinated status but Casper Ruud finds it silly. He explained that the rule seems silly to him because they are lifting any restrictions in weeks and they could have done that already allowing Djokovic to play because he is no safety hazard:

"Yeah, I mean, it's not up to me to say whether it's fair or not. I think the rule is silly if he's not a threat to the community at all at this stage whether or not he's vaccinated, so that's something that I can say. It's a bit sort of childish because the rule changes in a couple of weeks so they couldn't might as well change it already."

Despite this stance, Ruud admitted that ultimately rules need to be followed:

"But rules are rules and I'm sure they have tried everything that they can. With the context that Novak has, I'm sure that everything has been tried, and it hasn't been possible. In general, the country has sort of banned unvaccinated until in around a month, I think they will open the ban or something so it is a bit silly if you ask me but it's fair or not, I don't know. Like I said, I wouldn't have felt threatened by Novak if he was here and he was unvaccinated."