Australian Open: Craig Tiley believes that everyone can be there
The tournament director of the Australian Open, Craig Tiley, is also planning the first Grand Slam tournament of 2023 with Novak Djokovic again.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Oct 05, 2022, 04:20 pm
We probably don't have to attack the whole drama for the umpteenth time - by now everyone should have heard something of the lengthy story about Novak Djokovic not appearing at the Australian Open.
So just the most important hard facts: The industry leader at the time, Novak Djokovic, like all the other top players, set out for the fifth continent at the beginning of the year to be able to take part in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. Big difference to his colleagues: The non-existent vaccination against the corona virus.
After the Serb was taken straight from the airport to a locked hotel area and was stuck there for days, he finally had to leave the country without having lost anything.
"The environment has completely changed"
For the coming year, however, it looks quite good that the 21-time Grand Slam champion will get a visa for Australia, since the rules for unvaccinated people have now been significantly relaxed. There is still no confirmation from the organizers that the Djoker will really be 100 percent there in 2023, but the first words from Craig Tiley, the tournament director of the "Happy Slams", sound quite confident.
The 60-year-old South African told the Australian newspaper The Age: "We are on the right track to win back all the top players. We are in a different time than nine months ago and I think the environment has completely changed People are moving freely around the world again and we hope to have the best players here in January."
Djokovic has won the major event "down under" a remarkable nine times in his career.