Novak Djokovic's vaccine stance underlines his determination, however misguided you may think he is

Novak Djokovic is looking to a future in which he hopes Covid vaccination status will no longer be significant.

A future in which he stays at the top of the game until his late thirties — a challenge made easier, he argues, by paying obsessive attention to everything he consumes.

The world is already starting to open up to the unvaccinated.

New rules announced in France this weekend mean those arriving from another EU or green list country no longer need to isolate. The French Open beckons.

And it is a similar story in England, bringing a hassle-free Wimbledon into prospect.

Djokovic's problem, at least in the short term, will be the United States of America, where vaccine certificates are required, and there are few exemptions.

So the world number one is very likely to be missing from next month's major ATP Tour events in Indian Wells and California.

And more crucially, if the rules remain in place, from the year's final Grand Slam of the season in New York in August.

Djokovic will play his first tournament of the year in Dubai next week, but the holes in his schedule mean he will almost certainly soon lose his world number one status, a position he has held for a total of 360 weeks.

It also increases Rafael Nadal's chances of finishing his career as the most decorated male player of all time. The Spaniard's Australian Open title was his 21st Grand Slam, one more than Djokovic, and injury permitting Nadal will be able to play in all the year's remaining Slams.

Djokovic's claim he does not have enough information about the Covid vaccine is punctured here by the BBC's medical editor Fergus Walsh.

«It is hard to know what more information Novkak Djokovic wants,» he said.

«He continually talks about 'the vaccine' — there are multiple,