"No threat to me" - Ruud Addresses Djokovic's Unvaccinated Status

Thursday, 16 March 2023 at 07:30

Updated at Tuesday, 07 January 2025 at 13:34

byZachary Wimer

Casper Ruud feels like Novak Djokovic was banned from the Indian Wells Masters because of a "silly" reason as he doesn't feel threatened by an unvaccinated player.

The COVID-19 pandemic is nearly over, and while there are still cases, it's become an afterthought in many people's minds. According to Ruud, who is one of the players competing in Indian Wells, there was no reason to keep Djokovic from entering the United States.

The Norwegian player would not have felt unsafe if Djokovic had been in Indian Wells. He didn't want to say whether it was fair, but he called the rule "silly" in a talk with Eurosport.

"Yeah, I mean, it's not up to me to say whether it's fair or not. I think the rule is silly if he's not a threat to the community at all at this stage, whether or not he's vaccinated, so that's something that I can say. It's a bit sort of childish because the rule changes in a couple of weeks, so they couldn't might as well change it already."

- Ruud on Djokovic's ban

The Norwegian added that, in the end, rules are rules, and people and players must obey the rules that are in place. According to the Norwegian, it doesn't matter how one feels about it, rules need to be obeyed.

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"But rules are rules and I'm sure they have tried everything that they can. With the context that Novak has, I'm sure that everything has been tried, and it hasn't been possible."

"In general, the country has sort of banned unvaccinated until in around a month, I think they will open the ban or something so it is a bit silly if you ask me but it's fair or not, I don't know. Like I said, I wouldn't have felt threatened by Novak if he was here and he was unvaccinated."