Novak Djokovic is likely to miss the US Open leg despite the change in vaccine policies by the United States
Novak Djokovic
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has had a season to forget this year. The Serb was coming into the 2022 season with a brilliant haul in the 2021 season having won a hattrick of majors before finishing as the runner-up in the 2021 US Open. He also finished the year as the World No. 1 for the 7th time, breaking his childhood hero Pete Sampras‘ record. He started the 2021 season with 17 Grand Slam titles and by winning the 2021 Wimbledon, he won his 20th major, tying Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal who also had 20 majors to their names at the time.
He was the favourite in the US Open as well but Daniil Medvedev beat him in the finals to win his first major. With the 2022 Australian Open next, Djokovic was favourite to win the major but his decision to remain unvaccinated proved too costly as he was not allowed to play and as a result did not play for 7 weeks at the start of the season. While France and UK have allowed unvaccinated foreigners, the USA did not allow unvaccinated foreigners thereby not allowing Djokovic to play in the region this year.
All hopes not lost for Novak Djokovic as USA likely to relax the mandate further as per regular reviews
However, with drop in cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA informed that the travel requirement of showing a negative test for Covid-19 will no longer be required from Sunday, 12th June 2022. “This step is possible because of the progress we’ve made in our fight against Covid-19. The administration will not hesitate to reinstate a pre-departure testing requirement, if needed later,” said Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary, as per the New York Times.
However, for Novak, it is not completely a green signal as international travellers would still require to be fully vaccinated to enter the US. Djokovic can now only hope that the case in the USA continue to fall and as per reports emerging, the concerned institution will be having regular policy updates and reviews, the only case which can allow Novak to play in the 2022 US Open and the warm up tournaments leading to the Grand Slam.
Follow our page FirstSportz Tennis for the latest updates
Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)