Jesper de Jong was killed early this morning in the last qualifying round for the Australian Open. The Hoofddorper still has a small chance of being drawn as a lucky loser for the Grand Slam tournament if other tennis players unsubscribe. One spot will certainly become available, because Novaj Djokovic cannot participate due to the withdrawal of his visa.
The 21-year-old De Jong encountered Tomas Machac in the last qualifying round. The Czech, who is more than seventy places higher in the world ranking, proved too strong in two sets: 6-2 and 6-3.
Yet the door to the debut at a Grand Slam is still ajar. If tennis players drop out of the schedule, the places that become available will be raffled among the losers from the third qualifying round. De Jong himself calls the chance ‘nil’, because he is fifteenth on the list of dropouts. That means that fifteen seeded players would have to drop out.
Djokovic exit
The name of Djokovic, number one in the world, went through a thick line this morning. The Minister of Immigration is revoking the Serb’s visa. He has not adhered to the corona rules. Djokovic won a lawsuit on this issue, but in recent days the minister has assessed the situation and used his power to revoke the visa.
The argument is that Australia is doing everything possible to keep corona out. According to the minister, it is not a good signal to the population if the tennis player, who has not been vaccinated, can ‘just’ come and play. Djokovic stated that he has a recovery certificate, but it has since emerged that the nine-time winner in Melbourne has appeared in public during his infection, while he was not allowed to.