Novak Djokovic has officially withdrawn from the 2022 Canadian Open in Montreal, which was confirmed by the organizers as well.
This is likely just the first official withdrawal of many from Djokovic in the upcoming weeks because he’s an unvaccinated individual. The reason why he withdrew from this event specifically is because of that.
Just like the United States of America, Canada also doesn’t allow unvaccinated foreign nationals to enter the country. Djokovic is a Serbian national, and he’s unvaccinated, which bars him from entering either Canada or the United States.
It’s why he officially withdrew from the event because he couldn’t enter the country legally. He can’t do that for the United States either right now, so he will likely have to withdraw from the Cincinnati Open and the US Open as well.
Djokovic knew that not getting vaccinated was likely to cause him trouble on the ATP Tour. In a recent interview, the Serbian confirmed that he was willing to suffer the consequences of not being vaccinated.
That personal choice of doing or not doing so is very important to him as a principle, and he was willing to pay the price for it. One of those includes his absence from the ATP Masters 1000 event in Montreal, as the official announcement from the Canadian Open organizers confirmed his absence.
There is still a minor chance that some sort of exemption will arrive in time for the US Open, but the Canadian government didn’t allow him to enter, and the US government won’t likely change their approach either.
It’s almost certain that he will miss the Cincinnati Open, but there is always hope that he might somehow find himself at the US Open. His coach, Goran Ivanisevic, isn’t optimistic, but as long as the US government doesn’t explicitly say that there won’t be any exemption, there is technically hope for the Serbian player and his fans.