PHOTOS/VIDEO: 2022 Melbourne Summer Set R2 Rafael Nadal vs. Ricardas Berankis

2022 Melbourne Summer Set R2 Rafael Nadal bt. Ricardas Berankis  6-2 7-5

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Rafa: “Super happy to be back in competition. It’s difficult to imagine a better place than here at the beginning of the season in Australia. It’s only the first match after a while. Honestly, I have been going through some difficult, challenging moments the past year-and-a-half, but in general terms I am super happy to be back in competition.
Of course it’s important to start with a victory, which gives me the chance to play another time tomorrow and that’s the main thing at this moment because I didn’t play for such a long time.”

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Rafael Nadal has endorsed the Australian Open’s vaccine mandate, but the Spanish tennis star has stopped short of personally encouraging Novak Djokovic to be vaccinated.

Speaking for the first time after arriving in Australia after his Open campaign was threatened due to a COVID-19 infection, Nadal offered his sympathy to Australians.

“It’s normal that the people here in Australia gets very frustrated with the case, because they have been going through a lot of very hard lockdowns... A lot of people were not able to come back home,” Nadal said.

“The only for me clear thing is if you are vaccinated, you can play in the Australian Open and everywhere, and the world in my opinion have been suffering enough to not follow the rules.”

He backed the role of science, saying: “The only thing I can say is I believe in what the people who knows about medicine says. If the peoples says we need to get vaccinated, we need to get the vaccine, that’s my point of view.”

“I went through the COVID, I have been vaccinated twice. And if you do this, you don’t have any problem to play here,” he said. “That’s the only clear thing.”

Asked specifically about Djokovic’s situation, Nadal said: “If you don’t want to get the vaccine, you’re going to have some troubles.”

“Because after a lot of people have been dying for two years my feeling is with the vaccine, [it’s] the only way to stop this pandemic,” he said.

Pressed by a reporter about whether Djokovic “should have known better”, Nadal said he had no opinion on that.

“I think if he wanted, he would be playing here in Australia without a problem... He made his own decisions, and everybody is free to take their own decisions, but there are some consequences.

“Of course I don’t like the situation that is happening. In some way I feel sorry for him. But at the same time, he knew the conditions since a lot of months ago, so he makes his own decisions.”

Source: theage.com.au

Photos: Getty Images; AFP; AP; Anadolu 

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