Tennis legend Tommy Haas has implored the United States to lift its vaccination mandates, saying it would be a “disgrace” if Novak Djokovic is forced to miss more tournaments in the country.
Djokovic, who remains unvaccinated, sat out of last year’s US Open as well as the Indian Wells Masters, the Miami Open, the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Masters as a result of the United States’ mandates.
The nine-time Australian Open champion has enjoyed a better 2023 so far, with Australia reversing its decision from 12 months ago to allow him to compete.
LIVE UPDATES: Australian Open 2023 day eight highlights
READ MORE: Tim Tzsyu world title opponent confirmed
READ MORE: Tsitsipas’ touching Laver nod after epic win
Haas, the tournament director at Indian Wells, said he hopes the United States follows suit, tipping Djokovic to end the year as the world No.1.
“If Djokovic stays healthy, I don’t see how he’s not going to be No.1,” he said.
“Obviously the one problem being that he still cannot come to the US. If he doesn’t play Indian Wells and Miami in March (it will be tough), they’re supposed to lift those mandates by mid-April.
“It would be nice to see if we could maybe lift those a little earlier and have him come to play Indian Wells and Miami.
“I think he wants to play, so we should give him the chance. Hopefully we can have him there. I mean, it would be a disgrace in my eyes if he wasn’t coming to these events, or not allowed to come.”
Haas said he and those in charge of Indian Wells will do “everything we can do on our end” in terms of lobbying to help Djokovic’s chances of playing in the tournament.
The three-time Australian Open semi-finalist also said he was in Melbourne to learn what Indian Wells could emulate from the the first grand slam of the calendar year.
“I’m obviously very interested to see all the things that need to be in place in order to welcome the fans, the players and the sponsors,” he said.
“It (Indian Wells) is such a great event, it’s the best 1000 on both the men’s and women’s side so we really try to go out of our way to make sure everybody is always welcome and feels great and wants to come back.
Watch the Australian Open live and free on the Nine Network: Channel 9, 9Gem and 9NOW
“There’s always a lot of little things that go into it. We’re always trying to make some changes, so it’s good for me to be here and to see what Craig Tiley and the whole Tennis Australia team does here because they do a tremendous job. That’s what we’re all about.
“We want to make sure everyone has a great experience, whether you’re sitting on centre court or rolling around on the site.”
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
Australian Open 2023 in pictures: Iga Swiatek’s elimination seals historic 55-year first
