The 20-time Grand Slam champion was booted out of Australia a day before the tournament at Melbourne Park began in January this year, after immigration minister Alex Hawke used his discretionary powers to cancel his visa.
But The Telegraph claim the Serb is now set to be banned from Flushing Meadows in August and September, with no plans for the country to relax immigration rules obliging travellers to have had the vaccine.
US immigration last week dropped the requirement for all incoming passengers to return a negative Covid test before boarding an aeroplane, but maintained the need for proof of vaccination to be presented on arrival.
Djokovic meanwhile revealed in February – in his first interview since the farce in Australia – that he would refuse to play at future Grand Slams if it means he has to take a Covid vaccine.
Djokovic made the quarter-finals of the French Open this year before losing a thriller to Rafael Nadal, and is now expected to defend his Wimbledon title too.
However, the report adds the United States Tennis Association are not expected to follow in Wimbledon’s approach and ban Russian and Belarussian players from competing in New York.
It furthers the All England Clubs’ isolation on the issue, with the USTA reportedly keen to avoid enforcing bans motivated by politics.
The report also claims unlike the UK Government’s desire to avoid Russian victories at SW19, there was no instruction from their US counterparts to limit Russian participation.
A USTA board meeting reportedly heard arguments in favour of following in Wimbledon’s footsteps of a Russia ban, but the stance of the ATP and WTA appears towards the All England Club is said to have been a factor in their decision to allow Russians to compete.
The two tours said political statements had no place in tennis and described the All England Club’s position as discriminatory as they stripped rankings points from Wimbledon, a fate the US Open could also have expected had they followed suit.
But the stripping of ranking points has not affected prize money for Wimbledon, with first round singles losers set to earn £50,000 and the champions £2million each as part of a record overall prize pot of £40.35m.
That represents an 11.1 per cent increase on last year, which was still affected by the pandemic.
It is a 5.4 per cent increase on 2019, the last year that The Championships was held before full capacity crowds.
