Novak Djokovic has not been granted any “special opportunity” to play at the Australian Open, says Craig Tiley

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley has clarified that the World no.1 Novak Djokovic has not been granted any ‘special opportunity’ to play at the upcoming Australian Open. Djokovic confirmed that he will be taking part in the Happy Slam after he received a medical exemption from Covid-19 vaccination.

The Serbian had earlier refused to reveal his vaccination station. Tennis Australia had stated that all the players taking part in the Australian Open should be double vaccinated or they should carry a medical exemption approval with themselves.

However, Tiley has stated that no special case has been made for Djokovic and any other player would have been offered the medical exemption if he or she meets the required guidelines.

“If they didn’t meet the guidelines, and there were many that didn’t so, therefore, they were rejected, but if they met the guidelines including for example – which a lot of people forget – is one of those conditions is having COVID recently, in the past six months,” said Tiley in an recent interview with World Wide of Sports.

“Any person who met those conditions has been allowed to come in. There’s been no special favor. There’s been no special opportunity granted to Novak,” added the Australian.

Meanwhile, Tiley added that it is upto Djokovic whether he wants to reveal publicly why he received an exemption.

“The process has been very clear and we completely understand and empathize with, first of all, some people being upset about the fact that Novak has come in because of his statements over the past couple of years around vaccination,” Tiley said.

“However, it’s ultimately up to him to discuss with the public his condition if he chooses to do that, and the reason why he received an exemption,” added the Australian.

Djokovic will look to clinch his La Decima Australian Open title. The tournament will begin from January 17.