Australian Open tournament director and Tennis Australia CEO, Craig Tiley has confirmed athletes wanting to compete in the 2022 Australian Open will have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Tiley confirmed the news following the comments made by Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, suggesting all athletes will need to be fully vaccinated to enter the state: “It’s been made very clear, when the Premier announced several weeks ago that in order to participate at the Australian Open, to come into Victoria, you’ll need to be fully vaccinated.”

“All the playing group understands it, our patrons will need to be vaccinated, all the staff working at the Australian Open will need to be vaccinated.

“But when we’re in a state where there’s more than 90 per cent of the population fully vaccinated, they’ve done a magnificent job with that, it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

However, tennis superstar, Novak Djokovic, among others, is refusing to participate in the Australian Open if vaccination is mandatory.

The nine-time Australian Open winner refuses to confirm or deny if he is vaccinated.

“Right now, we don’t have any official announcement or statement,” Tiley said.

“So until that’s out, I won’t be talking about this anymore, because I don’t want to be part of the stories about the assumptions and what-ifs,” he said.