Serbian professional tennis player, Novak Djokovic, has officially withdrawn from the Indian Wells tournament after his application for a COVID-19 vaccine waiver US visa applications have failed.
The tennis player who is among the most-profile athletes that have not been vaccinated against the Coronavirus filed an application last month to the United States government in order to get a special permission to play at ATP Masters events at Indian Wells as well as Miami, VisaGuide.World reports.
“World No 1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the 2023 BNP Paribas Open. With his withdrawal, moves into the field,” organizers pointed out in a statement, according to Times of India report.
At present, authorities in the United States ban entry for all unvaccinated internationals who plan to enter the country, following a policy that is set to be abolished when the US government ends its COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11.
The Masters 1000 event starts on March 8 to March 19 in Indian Wells, however, Djokovic’s entry seems to have been denied.
The US P-1 Visa permits internationals including athletes to enter the country for a specific event, performance, or competition, other visa options from which foreign athletes can benefit are, B-1 and O1A visas.
Recently, Djokovic said that a decision would be made in one way or the other before the draw for the ATP tournament.
“Whatever the decision is before the draw, if I’m not allowed, I’m going to pull out, of course, before the draw,” Djokovic pointed out.
Last year, he was deported from Australia Open after he wasn’t vaccinated against the virus and was not permitted to enter the United States for last year’s edition of the US Open. Still, he said that he would rather skip Grand Slams than get vaccinated against the Coronavirus.
According to the figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), authorities in the United States have registered a total of 102,019,564 COVID-19 infection cases since the start of the pandemic while 1,109,145 people have died during the same period.
The data provided by WHO reveals that as of February 10, a total of 662,514,513 vaccine doses have been administered in the US.
Such figures led authorities in the US to impose additional preventive measures in order to halt the further spread of the Coronavirus and its new strains.
But earlier this year, the US President, Joe Biden, told Congress that he would end national emergencies related to COVID-19 after according to him, the majority of the world has returned closer to normalcy.
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