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‘No special treatment’ – Australian government dismiss Novak Djokovic demands


Victoria Premier Daniel Andrew has dismissed the requests made by Novak Djokovic to loosen the restrictions for players stuck in hard quarantine in Melbourne.

The Australian Open is currently wrestling with many complications arising from positive Covid tests from people on flights bringing players to the tournament from overseas.

For more than 70 players, that has seen the previous ‘soft’ quarantine replaced by a much stricter variant that prevents them from training entirely for two weeks.

Djokovic, who is in a separate bubble in Adelaide, responded with some requests fast-track that process with more testing, but it has not been well-received by the Victoria government.

ā€œPeople are free to provide lists of demands but the answer is no,” Andrews said of the requests made by Djokovic.

ā€œAnd that was very clearly put. That was very clearly laid out beforehand.

ā€œThe notion that thereā€™s been any change, the notion that people werenā€™t briefed ā€“ I think that that argument really has no integrity whatsoever, and donā€™t just take my word for it.

ā€œYouā€™ve got other players, who I think on social media and in other forums have made it clear that they were clear on the rules.ā€

ā€œI know that thereā€™s been a bit of chatter from a number of players about the rules,ā€ he said.

ā€œThe rules apply to them as they apply to everybody else, and they were all briefed on that before they came. And that was the condition on which they came.

ā€œThereā€™s no special treatment here. Because the virus doesnā€™t treat you specially. So neither do we.ā€


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.