Tommy Haas did as much as he could. We tried to get Novak Djokovic to be allowed to get an exemption, but that wasn’t able to happen.
“We’d love to have him, and he’s our greatest champion, he’s won six times here. Unfortunately, that’s way above my pay grade.”
Serbia’s Djokovic missed last year’s US Open because of his vaccination status.
Djokovic, who also missed last year’s Australian Open and was deported from the country because of his vaccination status, has said he would skip Grand Slams rather than have a Covid-19 vaccination.
He was permitted to travel to Melbourne in January and won a record-extending 10th Australian Open title, tying Rafael Nadal’s men’s record of 22 Grand Slam wins.
Djokovic suffered his first defeat of the season last week when he was beaten in straight sets by Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
He is next set to play on the clay of the Monte Carlo Masters from 9 April.
