Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio despatched a letter to President Joe Biden on March 3, asking him to waive the U.S. administration’s international-travel vaccine necessities for Djokovic, whose refusal to get jabbed towards COVID-19 has led him to overlook a number of big-name tournaments over the past two years.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration not too long ago prolonged the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for incoming worldwide vacationers till April 10.Â
The two stateside tournaments Djokovic had hoped to play on this month are the Indian Wells Masters in California, which kicked off March 6, and the Miami Open beginning March 19.
Rubio and Scott are urging Biden to “promptly grant Djokovic a waiver” in order that he has a shot to compete in Miami.
“It has come to our consideration that your administration is in receipt of a request to waive the present vaccine mandate for worldwide vacationers coming into the United States from top-ranked males’s tennis participant Novak Djokovic,” the letter (hooked up beneath) reads. “We write to induce you to grant the requested waiver, which is critical to permit Mr. Djokovic to compete within the Miami Open skilled tennis match held in our house state of Florida.”
The Department of Homeland Security beforehand rejected Djokovic’s vaccine waiver request, in accordance with Scott, which might have allowed him to play on the back-to-back tournaments.
Djokovic, who missed final 12 months’s U.S. Open and Australian Open due to his vaccination standing, has made it abundantly clear that he is prepared to sacrifice participation in Grand Slam tournaments with the intention to stay unvaccinated.
The tennis legend was deported from Australia in January 2022 after the nation’s immigration minister revoked his visa amid controversy over his vaccination standing. In advance of the 2022 Australian Open, the nation had granted him a waiver primarily based on his immunity from his COVID-19 an infection in late 2021. But the minister indicated that permitting Djokovic to stay within the nation to compete within the match may spark anti-vaccine sentiment.
In the aftermath of the controversy, Djokovic advised the BBC, “I used to be by no means towards vaccination… But I’ve all the time supported the liberty to decide on what you place in your physique.”
His choice to stay unvaccinated sparked controversy in tournament-hosting international locations worldwide and drew criticism from a number of tennis greats together with Martina Navratilova.
“I love him a lot however I can’t defend the selection to not get vaccinated,” Navratilova mentioned final 12 months. “You should take one for the staff.”
On March 3, the United States Tennis Association and the U.S. Open mentioned they had been hopeful Djokovic could be allowed to play the Indian Wells and Miami Open occasions. Two days later, on March 5, he withdrew from the California match.
Djokovic, 35, a Serbian-born tennis participant, is at present ranked No. 1 on the planet. In January, he received the Australian Open for his twenty second Grand Slam singles title –– tying the lads’s file set by Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal.
The final time he competed on the Miami Open, he was knocked out in an early spherical in 2019 by Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in three units.