Novak Djokovic must ‘roll up his sleeves and receive the vaccine’ if he wants to play at Canadian Open

Novak Djokovic remains on the Canadian Open entry list, but government and tennis officials have insisted “the rules apply to everyone” and he will need to be vaccinated if he wants to compete.

The 21-time Grand Slam winner missed the defence of his Australian Open title at the start of the year as well as the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open due to his unvaccinated status.

However, he was allowed to compete at the French Open and Wimbledon, but he now faces yet more road blocks due to his refusal to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Canada, like the United States, requires foreign nationals to be inoculated against COVID-19 in order to enter the respective countries. However, while Djokovic has been hinting that the US could change their regulations, which will allow him to play at the US Open, it is unlikely to be the case in Canada.

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The Canadian Open is one of the warm-up events for the US Open and starts on August 8, but tournament director Eugene Lapierre made it clear that Djokovic will need to be vaccinated if he wants to play.

“The situation is clear – either Canada will change the rules regarding vaccination or he (Novak Djokovic) will have to roll up his sleeves and receive the vaccine,” Lapierre said.

“However, I do not consider either of those two scenarios likely.”

Djokovic said after his Wimbledon title win last week that he won’t get vaccinated