“Personal Choice”- Unvaccinated Pierre-Hugues Herbert on missing Australian Open 2022
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Pierre-Hugues Herbert
Pierre-Hugues Herbert became the first player officially set to miss the Australian Open 2022, due to the vaccine mandate. The Frenchman revealed that he has not taken the vaccine out of “ personal choice” and has no intention of changing his mind.
The Australian Open had earlier issued a mandate that any players in the tournament, the first Grand Slam of 2022, would have to be doubly vaccinated unless they have a medical exemption. Failure to do so will rule a player out of the tournament, beginning in Melbourne from 17th January, irrespective of their standings.
The former doubles world number 2 had won the tournament in 2019 with partner Nicolas Mahut. In an interview with French outlet L’Alsace, Herbert confirmed on Monday that he wouldn’t feature in the tournament. He went on to add that playing in the single’s competition at the championships would anyways not have been ideal due to his singles ranking. Herbert is currently 110th in the singles rankings.
“Personally, I am not vaccinated and the trip to Australia was not an option for me,” said Herbert. “I do what I can. But because of my singles ranking, it (playing in Australia) may have been a bad thing for a good start.”
Twitter world goes crazy over the news
The world of Twitter exploded as soon as the news emerged, with a vast majority of the people criticizing the player’s stance. Here are some of the reactions-
“My respect for players plummets when I learn they are not vaccinated! He has a child! Does he want that cold abd his wife abd everyone else to be safe? Argh!!!!”
“He will have fun next year when more and more countries say no vaccination no play. Lots of free time”
“ His choice, but I thought he was smarter than this.”
“ Only real loss is for Herbert”
“ #SELFISH Wait until this selfish player learns that ALL of the other Majors will follow suit”
“ Good do everyone a favor and stay home. Selfish human.”
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Akash Mandal
(433 Articles Published)