Novak Djokovic to miss Miami Open after being denied entry to United States, will return to tennis in April
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Published 18/03/2023 at 15:33 GMT
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will miss the Miami Open, tournament director James Blake has confirmed. Djokovic applied for an exemption to enter the United States so he could play the event, but has been denied entry. It’s the second Masters event Djokovic will miss this month after skipping Indian Wells for the same reason. The Miami Open takes place from March 21 to April 2.
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Novak Djokovic will miss the Miami Open after being denied entry to the United States.
Djokovic applied for special permission to enter the country as he has not taken the vaccination against Covid-19, but was denied an exemption.
Current US rules state international visitors need to show proof of vaccination to enter the country until at least April 10.
“Obviously, we're one of the premier tournaments in the world, we'd like to have the best players that can play,” said Miami Open tournament director James Blake. “We did all that we could.
"We tried to talk to the government, but that's out of our hands. We tried, and he wasn't able to play.
"Same result that he had in Indian Wells, where I know Tommy Haas did as much as he could.
"We tried to get Novak Djokovic to be allowed to get an exemption, but that wasn't able to happen.
"We would love to have him, and he's our greatest champion, he's won six times here. Unfortunately, that's way above my pay grade.
“Hopefully he will be back next year and all of the later events in the States including Cincinnati and the US Open.”
Djokovic was also forced to withdraw from Indian Wells for the same reasons, so he has not played in North America since losing the 2021 US Open final, as he came one match away from achieving the calendar Grand Slam.
Following Miami, there are three ATP 250 events taking place on the week beginning April 3 in Houston, Marrakesh and Cascais.
Then the Monte Carlo Masters takes place where Djokovic will almost certainly compete, so he will return to action during early April.
He will hope to win a 23rd Grand Slam at the French Open, which will be live on Eurosport and discovery+, at the end of May to go one ahead of Rafael Nadal.
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