The Miami Open is the latest tournament Novak Djokovic has been forced to miss over the past 14 months due to his refusal to get vaccinated against Covid.
Djokovic withdrew from the tournament earlier this month after organisers insisted they had "tried everything" to get him permission to play. The US is one of the last countries to still have restrictions in place against unvaccinated travellers and Djokovic has now missed eight major tournaments since the start of last year as a result of his vaccine status.
In total, Tennis 365 report the 22-time Grand Slam winner has missed out on a whopping £9.35m ($11.39m) in potential earnings had he gone on to win all eight of those tournaments.
The controversy began when Djokovic was deported on the eve of the 2022 Australian Open, having had his visa cancelled twice. As a result, he missed out on the £1.58m on offer for winning the tournament.
Djokovic has also now twice been prevented from playing in the 'sunshine double', missing out on the 2022 and 2023 Indian Wells and Miami Open tournaments. Last year, Djokovic could have banked £1.01m at each tournament, while the prize money has now been upped to £1.03m this year.
Despite being prevented from competing in Australia and the US, Djokovic enjoyed some success in Europe last year. He was defeated by rival Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals of the French Open, before beating Nick Kyrgios to win a seventh Wimbledon title.
After banking a whopping £2m in prize money for his Wimbledon victory, Djokovic once again found himself banned from competing as he was prevented from travelling to the US to play in the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Masters.
Those tournaments had £751,548 and £796,483 in prize money on offer and would have formed part of Djokovic's preparation for the US Open, which he also was not allowed to feature in.
With the Serbian absent, Carlos Alcaraz went on to win the tournament and earn £2.13m in prize money. Djokovic was able to compete at this year's Australian Open, going on to win the title for the tenth time in his career, but has once again run into trouble trying to enter America for the Indian Wells and Miami Open.
