With gamers beginning to arrive in Sydney for the lads’s season-opening ATP Cup, there was nonetheless no readability on Monday whether or not top-ranked Novak Djokovic can be collaborating within the crew event or within the Australian Open that follows.
There has been intense hypothesis over Djokovic’s participation on the Australian Open, which begins on January 17, with the 34-year-old, who’s against vaccinations, repeatedly declining to say if he has been innoculated towards Covid-19. The charge of vaccination within the prime 100 in males’s tennis is 95%, based on ATP Tour knowledge.
With the organisers of the Grand Slam confirming that every one gamers and members at Melbourne Park have to be vaccinated or have a medical exemption granted by an impartial panel of consultants, Djokovic has stored everybody guessing.
If the Serbian doesn’t flip up, world No 2 Daniil Medvedev can be the highest draw on the ATP Cup, and he has already arrived in Sydney to assist Russia defend its title.
Djokovic, 34, has received a report 9 Australian Open titles, together with the final three, and the possibilities of him taking part in Down Under improved when he was named in Serbia’s crew for the ATP Cup.
But on Saturday, a report in Serbian day by day Blic mentioned Djokovic wouldn’t be travelling to Sydney for the event, including to doubts over whether or not he’ll play at Melbourne Park from January 17.
His father Srdjan informed a Serbian tv channel final month that Djokovic would in all probability pull out of the foremost, saying Tennis Australia’s stance on obligatory vaccination was tantamount to “blackmail”.
Djokovic’s pullout will, nonetheless, not impression Serbia’s participation within the event which has a $10 million prize purse, with the groups locked in on December 7 primarily based on participant entries.
Owing to Djokovic’s present world rating, Serbia acquired prime billing for the 16-team ATP Cup from January 1-9 and had been put in Group A together with Norway, Chile and Spain when the draw was held earlier this month.
With Serbia, who received the inaugural ATP Cup in 2020, scheduled to open its marketing campaign on Saturday, time is working out for Djokovic to play in Sydney after which in Melbourne, the place he would have an opportunity to interrupt a three-way tie for 20 main titles, presently shared with Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.
