Novak Djokovic kicks off his 2022 season in Dubai on Monday February 21 with the ambition to keep his place as world number 1, a month after his expulsion from Australia where he could not defend his chances at the first Grand Slam of the year , not being vaccinated against Covid-19. To justify his arrival in Australia without having been vaccinated, the 34-year-old Serb had requested, on the grounds of having contracted Covid a few weeks earlier, an exemption which had never been granted to him. And his visa had been definitively canceled after 15 days of an unprecedented controversy. In Dubai, the Novak Djokovic can participate in the tournament because a coronavirus vaccine is not mandatory to enter the Emirates, where 895 new cases were announced last Thursday. Djokovic has already won the trophy five times in this competition where Andy Murray, the former Scottish world number 1, is also registered. “ I’m excited to come back and play here “, said the Serb to the local media, as soon as he arrived in the Gulf.