Novak Djokovic
Photo: Loren Elliott/REUTERS/SCANPIX
Gints Narogs, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
Tennis players who have contracted Covid-19 will be able to participate in the Australian Open, although last year Novak Djokovic was deported from the “green continent” because he was not vaccinated.
In the world of sports, covid has been defeated and no one allows this disease to affect the course of the competition anymore. The best example is the Australian Open tennis championship, which starts next Monday. Around this time last year, the Djokovic saga was at the forefront of the world’s sports news. The tennis luminary from Serbia was a staunch anti-vaxxer, but he still went to Melbourne. Australian law at the time stated that unvaccinated people could not enter the country. Djokovic ignored it, was detained by immigration, then released, detained again and later deported from the country under a three-year ban. A year has passed, Djokovic’s ban has been lifted and he will be one of the favorites in the men’s tournament. Moreover, the organizers of the Australian Open have announced that players will be able to participate in the tournament if they are infected with Covid-19 at the time. “Tennis players will not be required to report positive tests for Covid-19 and will be able to compete in the tournament as long as they feel well enough,” says tournament director Craig Tiley. “If someone does not feel well, then let them stay at home, but if the illness is in a mild form, then there will be no ban on participating in the competition,” says the representative of the organizers.
At the Australian Open Championship, Latvia will be represented by Alona Ostapenko, who has been in the 18th position in the world ranking for 12 weeks in a row. She is expected to start again this week in Adelaide in the “WTA 500” series tournament, meeting neutral athlete Anna Kalinska in the first round. Also in Adelaide last week, Ostapenko reached the second round in singles, but reached the semi-finals in doubles.
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