{"id":366047,"date":"2024-02-07T20:21:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T21:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366047"},"modified":"2024-02-07T23:03:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T23:03:20","slug":"djokovics-five-year-return-confirmed-after-us-lockout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366047","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic&#039;s five-year return confirmed after US lockout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/novak-djokovic\" title=\"Novak Djokovic\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Novak Djokovic<\/a> is returning to the BNP Paribas Open for the first time in five years in pursuit of a record sixth title in the Southern California desert.<\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s top-ranked male <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\" title=\"tennis\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tennis<\/a> player last competed at <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/indian-wells\" title=\"Indian Wells\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Indian Wells<\/a> in 2019, when he lost in the third round.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic didn\u2019t play there the last four years because he wasn\u2019t vaccinated against COVID-19. The US required non-citizen visitors to be vaccinated through last spring.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/news-2024-tom-burgess-south-sydney-rabbitohs-release-super-league\/b64d4178-60ce-422c-844d-bc5f826cc5e5\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Premiership star Burgess poised to leave Rabbitohs\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Premiership star Burgess poised to leave Rabbitohs<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ufeff<strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/news-2024-ricky-ponting-press-conference-jake-fraser-mcgurk-future\/700633b0-314f-4f71-b822-3ba5dbff368f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Ponting&#x27;s big prediction for emerging star&#x27;s future<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/combat-sports\/boxing-news-curtis-scott-domestic-violence-fight-v-joey-leilua-the-mole\/0a03e054-cc64-440e-9305-8930dee4d05c\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>&#x27;We need to stop&#x27;: Scott&#x27;s terrorised ex blasts Fox Sports<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Djokovic won the tournament in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Three-time winner Rafael Nadal will return after missing last year&#x27;s event because of injury. He missed the Australian Open in January because of injury as well.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"1431c19b-4feb-43f4-826f-d679c2f72325\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/1431c19b-4feb-43f4-826f-d679c2f72325\" alt=\"Novak Djokovic reacts in their semi-final singles match against Jannik Sinner at the 2024 Australian Open.\" data-width=\"4142\" data-height=\"2330\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The tournament featuring the combined ATP and WTA tours starts on March 4.<\/p>\n<p>Iga Swiatek, the world&#x27;s top-ranked woman, will be back. She won the title in 2022 and reached the semi-finals last year.<\/p>\n<p>Defending champions Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina will return. Alcaraz, ranked No.2, became the first man to win at Indian Wells without dropping a set since Roger Federer in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Also in the event are Australian Open champions Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, who lost in last year&#x27;s final in the desert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Novak Djokovic is returning to the BNP Paribas Open for the first time in five years in pursuit of a record sixth title in the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366047\" title=\"Djokovic&#039;s five-year return confirmed after US lockout\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":366050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=366047"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366053,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366047\/revisions\/366053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/366050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=366047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=366047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=366047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}