The 21-time Grand Slam winner will play on the Adelaide Worldwide in January
Novak Djokovic has been confirmed for his first match in Australia since being deported from the nation in a row involving his Covid vaccination standing in January of this 12 months.
The Serb arrived in Australia with a medical exemption in the beginning of 2022 and believed it will enable him to play on the Australian Open, the place he’s the file nine-time males’s singles champion. After political intervention, nevertheless, he was deported and confronted being banned from Australia for 3 years.
The 35-year-old had his visa ban overturned final month – and it has now been confirmed that he’ll play on the Adelaide Worldwide, which will get underway on January 1 and options fellow ATP high ten males’s gamers together with Russia’s Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev.
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Djokovic confirms Australian Open plans
Djokovic will look to start out the 2023 season in the identical vogue he ended 2022. Successful the ATP Finals in December, he now heads Down Beneath seeking to degree generational rival Rafael Nadal on 22 Grand Slam wins.
Nadal received the final version of the Australian Open by beating Medvedev within the ultimate in Djokovic’s absence. With one other triumph on the French Open, the Spaniard pulled two forward of Roger Federer and Djokovic, earlier than the Serb pulled one again by sealing his seventh Wimbledon crown in July.
Djokovic mentioned he was “very completely satisfied” to obtain the information about his Australian visa ban being overturned, which got here as a “aid” figuring out “what I and other people closest to me in my life have been by way of this 12 months with what occurred in Australia and post-Australia clearly.”
“I couldn’t obtain higher information for positive – throughout this match as nicely. [The] Australian Open has been my most profitable Grand Slam. I made a number of the greatest recollections there,” Djokovic added.
READ MORE: Djokovic wins record-equaling ATP Finals title
“After all, I need to return there. I need to play tennis, do what I do greatest, [and] hopefully have a terrific Australian summer time.
“I am at all times grateful to undergo experiences, it doesn’t matter what the experiences are. I attempt to be optimistic and optimistic in life. I sit up for beginning the brand new 12 months in Australia, and we’ll see how the subsequent 12 months goes,” Djokovic concluded.
The Adelaide Worldwide begins on January 1, with the Australian Open beginning 15 days later in Melbourne.
