Over the decades, not many Indians have done well in singles events in tennis Grand Slams across the world. A few names that come to mind for Indians to have done well in tennis include Rohan Bopanna, Mahesh Bhupati, Leander Paes, Vijay Amritraj, and others, but most of them have only done well in tennis doubles events, with an exception of female tennis star from Hyderabad, Sania Mirza.
Now with the 2022 Australian Open coming up, we had hopes of one Indian player participating in the junior event in Melbourne but some bad news has crept in as e’s been disqualified from participating in the first of four Grand Slam events of the year. We’re talking about 17-year old Aman Dahiya who was scheduled to play in Melbourne but has been ruled out now. Keep reading for details…
Aman Dahiya won’t play Aus Open 2022
With the rising cases of Covid-19 across the world, Australian authorities have decided to take matters into their own hands to ensure their country isn’t imploding with positive cases. Very recently, the cricketing scene was affected with players testing positive in the Ashes 2021/22 camps as well as in the ongoing 2021/22 Big Bash League as well. These led to increased worries for the Australian Open 2022 as well.
Ranked #142 in the world, Dahiya was meant to play the Australian Open junior tennis event but cannot now because of strict vaccination rules. Players who aren’t double vaccinated won’t be allowed to play at the prestigious event and the authorities minced no words while letting Dahiya know about the same. They paid no heed to the fact that vaccinations below the age of 18 years had not yet begun in India!
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“We have got the visa for Aman, but the Australian Open officials have been very firm in sticking to their stipulation. We did explain that under-18 vaccination had not yet started in India. We were also thinking of getting the vaccination done in some other country, but nothing could work,” said Jignesh Rawal, Dahiya’s coach who trains him at Ahmedabad’s Altevol Academy.
What Tennis Australia told Aman Dahiya?
“You will not be allowed to play the Australian Open junior championships or J1 Traralgon events if you are not fully vaccinated. Under current Australian guidelines, the applicant would be considered eligible for vaccination and therefore does not qualify for exemption,” was the communication from Francis Soyer of Tennis Australia.
Apart from the Australian Open 2022, Dahiya was also to play in a grade-1 junior event in Australia in Traralgon, but he won’t be making the trip to that part of the world now. Instead, he and his coach will have to focus on preparing for the next major tournament which is the French Open 2022. Coach Rawal also confirmed he’ll play in two grade-2 junior events in Delhi and Kolkata in the near future.
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