When the next edition of the Open is held, from April 25 to May 1, the organization will “scrupulously” follow the rules issued by the ATP.
The director of the Estoril Open, João Zilhão, assured this Wednesday that, if the tournament were in Portugal these days and the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic had attended under the same conditions as he attended the Australian Open, they would not have allowed him to participate. .
“No, not at all”, was the strong response of the manager in statements to the channel CNN Portugal after being asked about the Serbian tennis player, who has acknowledged that he entered Australia without correctly declaring the countries that he had previously visited and that he had even granted, an in-person interview knowing you were infected with COVID-19.
“Every player who comes, be it number one, two or three in the world, cannot falsify documents, cannot lie …”, said Zilhão.
When the next edition of the Estoril Open is held, from April 25 to May 1, the organization will “scrupulously” follow the rules issued by the ATP and will duly inform athletes so that they comply with them, as well as the regulations imposed by the General Directorate of Health (DGS) Portuguese that is imposed on those dates.
“Every country has its rules, Australia has extremely demanding rules, all the people who wanted to play in the Australian Open followed the rules. If he had been vaccinated, none of this would have happened ”, stressed the director of the Estoril Open, and stressed that the vast majority of tennis players are vaccinated.
Djokovic has sparked controversy these days for wanting to enter Australia with a medical exemption because he was not vaccinated, but customs agents denied him a visa and he was held in a Melbourne hotel.
Days later, he was released. In a statement released this Wednesday, Djokovic – who seeks to win his tenth title at the Australian Open and obtain his twenty-first Grand Slam – has acknowledged that he attended an interview with a French media on December 18, a day after learning that was positive for COVID-19.
In addition, he explained that his agent involuntarily committed a “human error” when filling in the box on the trips that the athlete made in the 14 days prior to his arrival in the oceanic country, by not declaring a displacement between Spain and Serbia.
The Australian Open will be played between January 17 and 30, although it is still in doubt that the tennis player can participate after the Australian Immigration Minister, Alex Hawke, said on Wednesday that he is considering the possibility of deporting the tennis player for Failure to comply with the requirements imposed to enter the country due to the pandemic. (D)
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