Craig Tiley on Novak Djokovic’s issue: “It was out of our control”

Australian Open CEO Craig Tiley said he can’t wait to see Novak Djokovic back in the Country next week.

The CEO of the tournament sees the number one favorite in the Serbian champion: “We are focused on welcoming Novak back. He will arrive next week. He will play an event in Adelaide and then play the Australian Open. I have talked a lot with him during the year, he is a great champion.

He is playing the best tennis and will be the number one favourite. He is popular in Australia and has a huge fan base. The last couple of years have been very difficult for everyone around the world, not just the Australian Open. If you step back and look, those circumstances were beyond our control, we clearly would have preferred this not to have happened, but we did all we could have done at the time.”

Novak Djokovic’s season: what happened

2022 was a year characterized by many lights and shadows for Novak Djokovic. The former number 1 paid for his choice not to get vaccinated against the Coronavirus, and this cost him the exclusion from the Australian Open and the US Open, as well as the ATP Masters 1000m on American hard courts (Indian Wells, Miami, Montreal and Cincinnati).

A difficult bite to stomach for the Serbian, who however managed to overturn a season that was taking a bad turn with successes at Wimbledon, at the Rome Internationals and the sixth seal at the ATP Finals in Turin, which brought him back to fifth ranking position, approaching the podium.

The 21-time Grand Slam champion’s 2023 will open under other auspices. The Australian government’s revocation of the ban on Nole will allow him to participate first in the 250m in Adelaide, and then in the Melbourne tournament, thus closing a bad story that had caused him to end up in the eye of the storm.

Of course, Nole will be the favorite to win the Australian Open, despite he have to deal with the defending champion Rafael Nadal and the world no.1 Carlos Alcaraz.