“It’s a joke, makes no sense whatsoever,” Rick Macci believes Novak Djokovic’s omission from the US Open is “bad for tennis”
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Novak Djokovic and Rick Macci
Former World No. 1 and 3-time US Open champion Novak Djokovic has been forced to miss the 2022 US Open due to his non-vaccination status. The requirement for foreign travellers coming into the USA requires them to be vaccinated and with Novak staying firm on his decision to not get the vaccine, he can’t enter the country.
Novak was hopeful that with a decline in Covid-19 cases, the rules might be relaxed and he would be allowed. However, his hopes were crushed and he was forced to withdraw his name hours before the draw ceremony took place to finalise the players competing. This will be the second Grand Slam Novak will be missing this year as he faced expulsion from the 2022 Australian Open as well in a rather worse way.
“Novak Djokovic will go down as the greatest player ever to hold a racket,”: Rick Macci
Unlike the case in Australia, Djokovic had much support from the citizens in the USA who wanted the rules to be relaxed as non-vaccinated American players are allowed to participate at the tournament. Speaking about the entire episode, Rick Macci, former coach of Venus and Serena Williams expressed his views on the entire thing.
“I don’t like it, it’s bad for tennis. I’m not losing sleep over it but he played last year, COVID-19 was worse. He played the year before, COVID-19 was a lot worse. Now it’s in the rear-view mirror but he’s not vaccinated, they don’t let people in the country, it’s a joke. It makes no sense whatsoever. I don’t think tennis has anything to do with it. It’s the government, you’ve got to be vaccinated to come in, it’s unfortunate. It applies to, in my opinion, not only the best player in the world but many other people that aren’t vaccinated.
“That maybe it affected your business, visiting relatives or whatever it impactedIt’s just front and centre because Djoker [Djokovic], who I feel will go down as the greatest player ever to hold a racket if he’s allowed to play tournaments. It looks like if you don’t get vaccinated, who knows where this is going to go. I’m not in favour of it and I think they should have made a special exception, but if they do it for him, they’ve got to do it for everybody,” said Macci speaking with TJ Sports.
Macci makes an excellent point as Djokovic was allowed to play in the last two years when the situation was worse but has been denied to play this year. While the topic can be up to debate for years to come, the bottom line remains that Djokovic has not been allowed to enter the USA and he misses the chance to go for his 4th US Open title and 22nd career Grand Slam title.
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Sarthak Shitole
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