“I don’t want to push my beliefs onto everybody else. However, we are playing a global sport.
“To make it as a mandate, there is much more to it. If you ask me just for my opinion, if that should be the case, I think it would just be helpful for everybody in the world, especially when we are travelling internationally.
Rafael Nadal trains on Wednesday morning.Credit:Joe Armao
“As soon as there is a grey area in the rules that gives too much questions, situations like this happen. On certain things I think [a] black and white approach is necessary, and, in my opinion, this should be the case.”
Nadal, while unwilling to publicly call for a no-jab, no-play rule, said high levels of vaccination had dramatically improved the working and travel conditions for tennis players. “We went through bubbles for two years, very challenging conditions,” he said. “If everybody’s vaccinated, we are allowed to improve our life on the tour and most important, our life outside the tour.
“Of course, I will always be supporting safer health measures that help to save lives in this world more than any other thing.”
Mr Alexander, whose tennis career spanned the formative years of the professional tour, said the sport needed the tennis associations and private clubs which run the four grand slam events – the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open – to adopt a unified position on player vaccinations.
Novak Djokovic arrives back in Belgrade.Credit:AP
“What has to happen is the four grand slams have to have common rules,” he said. “Each country is the custodian of one of the four jewels in the crown.
“We all need to get together and work something out that is clear, so that all players know exactly where they are at. If exemptions are part of it, don’t put it in the small print, say here it is; you need to be double vaccinated or face two weeks of quarantine.”
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A day after the Federal Court upheld the Australian government’s decision to revoke Djokovic’s visa and deport him back to Serbia on the grounds his high-profile, unvaccinated status and presence in Australia might inflame anti-vax sentiment and present a risk to public health and good order, the French government declared that unvaccinated players were not welcome at Roland Garros.
The US Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention issued an order late last year supporting a presidential edict requiring all non-immigration, non-citizens flying into the US to be fully vaccinated. The medical exemptions listed in the order include severe reactions to COVID jabs and allergies to vaccine ingredients, but not recent infections; the counterindication to vaccination claimed by Djokovic when he entered Australia.
The CDC position is expected to prompt the USTA, the national tennis association which stages the US Open, to revisit its vaccination requirements for players.
As things stand, the only grand slam host nation that Djokovic can freely enter is Britain. The private club that stages Wimbledon, the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, has previously shown itself to be more conservative on COVID measures than Boris Johnson’s government. Wimbledon is the only major tournament to be abandoned throughout the pandemic.
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Azarenka came to prominence in player politics when she led the push for the WTA to do more to protect the rankings of women who returned to the sport after childbirth and returns as a strong voice on the player council.
She was critical of all parties involved in the Djokovic saga, which also resulted in the detention and deportation of Czech player Renata Voracova, who entered Australia with the same medical exemption as Djokovic.
“This could have been prevented, this could have been addressed way earlier than it was,” Azarenka said. “What happened after, I don’t think there was anybody who looked good in any case. That became a bit of a circus.
“I think there should be a really hard look on this situation moving forward.”
Australian Open champ backs ‘no jab, no play’ rule for all
Source: Philippines Alive
