
There has been a lot of uncertainty regarding the status of unvaccinated players at next year's Australian Open, but it has finally been confirmed that players who are not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus will not be allowed entry into the country.
Australia's Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said the COVID-19 vaccine mandate applied to all visitors to the nation, with no exception made for players looking to compete at the first Grand Slam of 2022.
"The Government in establishing its borders has said that you'll need to be double vaccinated to visit Australia," Hawke told ABC Radio. "That's a universal application, not just to tennis players.
"I mean that every visitor to Australia will need to be double vaccinated."
The latest figures have revealed that more than a third of players on the men's and women's tour are not double jabbed. The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has revealed that just 35% of players were fully vaccinated, while the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) revealed the figure stood at 40% as of the start of last week.
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This news casts further doubt on the participation of defending champion Novak Djokovic, who has been openly opposed to Covid-19 vaccination and refuses to reveal his inoculation status.
"I don't have a message to Novak," said Hawke. "I have a message to everybody that wishes to visit Australia. He'll need to be double vaccinated."
Health Minister Greg Hunt added: "The rules apply to everyone without fear or favor. It doesn't matter whether you are number one in the world or you are anything else."
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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