Novak Djokovic is now one of only three of tennis’s men’s and women’s top 100 players not to have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, Telegraph Sport can reveal.
The world No 1 was becoming increasingly isolated in his refusal to get jabbed after the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association confirmed 98 and 99 of their respective top 100s had been fully vaccinated ahead of the Australian Open.
The only other player in the men’s top 100 known to have turned down the jab before the tournament is Tennys Sandgren after he confirmed it was behind him not playing there.
It is not known who the lone player in the women’s top 100 not to have been fully vaccinated is or whether she is at the Australian Open.
All those entering the tournament had to be fully vaccinated unless they were granted a medical exemption – with the decision to hand one to Djokovic sparking an extraordinary furore that culminated in him being deported from Australia this week.
The country’s strict border controls has had a dramatic impact on vaccination rates in a sport in which players were slow to get jabbed.
Ahead of August’s US Open, around half of players across the men’s and women’s tours had not been fully vaccinated.
As well as Djokovic, who made his anti-vaxx views public towards the start of the pandemic, they included world No 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who had said he would only get jabbed if it became mandatory to compete.
Compulsory vaccination appears to have had even more of an impact on take-up among women’s players, surging from 85 to 99 per cent among the top 100 in the days before the Australian Open began.
With France having imposed a vaccine pass on all sportspeople and the United States also locking out unjabbed visitors, Djokovic may now have no choice but to join those late adopters.