With another week to go before the World Cup tennis tournament and the subsequent Aussie Open

There is no certainty whether Djokovic will paly in the Aussie Open after his withdrawal from the World Cup series.  Djokovic is an anti-vaxxer and since the Aussie Government  only grant entry permission to players on condition that they have been vaccinated and tested negative,   Djokovic has already withdrawn from the preceding WC series and there has  been no indication that he has been vaccinated.

The Mubadala tournament last week  - won by Rublev - turned out to be a super-spreader event    A string of people - at least six people were subsequently tested positive for Covid 19 and those include Rublev, Nadal and Shapovalov and all is likely to be out of the World Cup series.    That series ended on 18 December and theoretically the players can go to Australia by the first week in January 2022.   There is no news from Nadal and Shapovalov - but Rublev indicated he had been fully vaccinated and has shown no medical effects stemming from being positive.  He is isolating though in terms of the instructions of doctors.

If he is tested negative on Friday he could be in Australia by Sunday - but he will not go if he poses any threat to other people.    The absence of players mentioned will weaken the competition - and Rublev in particular will be missed by the Russian team.    He easily won all the matches he played in in the 2021 series and helped the Russian team to be the series Champions.          

Since the 2020 EOY Championships played Djokovic played Medvedev in four matches being him in 2.    So the career count is 4 wins and 3 losses  by Djokovic.    In 2021 the count between Djokovic and Zverev  was 3-2  out of 5 matches played.   However, two of the three wins was early in 2021 and later on in 2021 Zverev let Djokovic 2-1.    

The present ranking would lead to the following seedings in the Aussie Open if Djokovic decides to play:-

1    Djokovic

2     Medvedev

3     Zverev

4     Tsitsipas

5      Rublev

 6     Nadal

7      Berretini.

That would mean that Djokovic will meet Zverev,Rublev and Berretini.  in the top half of the draw.     Not an easy one to get through on with his performances having weakened in the latter part of 2021.     Medvedev will have  much  easier road to the play-offs.     

It seems that Australia Tennis is trying to get Djokovic  a special permission to play in the  Assie Open without vaccination and in an interview in Paris. hinted at that as well.

In that same interview Djokovic referred to  himself, Medvedev and  Zverev as the top three players in the world at present and he said they are extremely competitive in games.    A match against them is never easy.    

I wonder what Djokovic has against vaccination?    He has not been vaccinated as yet as far as can be ascertained.   He is very vague about the issue and that is complicating matters.     .      

Latest report is that the pressure is on to get Djokovic to play in the Aussie Open tennis tournament through a medical exemption as to the Covid vaccination - but  I think that would cause such a huge uproar it will not happen.     There are thousands of Aussies stuck outside of Australia because of Aussie lockdowns and a special arrangement to accommodate Djokovic will cause serious problems for the Aussie government.