Camila Giorgi has been forced to deny that she faked her Covid vaccine certificate in order to attend the Australian Open last year.
The former top 30 player has been caught up in the drama, after doctor Daniela Grillone was arrested last February and has since been charged with administering fake serums.
Giorgi was brought into the topic of conversation after Grillone spoke of her relationship with the tennis star’s family to Italian newspaper Corriere del Veneto.
“Shortly before the beginning of summer,” Grillone said, “she (Giorgi) had come asking for the possibility of obtaining false proof of all the mandatory vaccines, as well as the Covid vaccine. I can confirm with absolute certainty that none of the vaccines against the Giorgi family have actually been administered.”
Giorgi was consequently interrogated by the press following an emphatic victory in her Australian Open first round match over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-0 6-1, and faced questions only concerning the fake vaccine allegations.
The world No.70 admitted that she was vaccinated by Grillone once but insisted that she went elsewhere for her other vaccinations.
“The problems are on that doctor, not on me. She had problems with the law multiple times. I took my vaccines in different places. I’m very calm, otherwise I wouldn’t come here and play.”
The Italian No.5 insisted multiple times that the doctor is “The one in troubles. I had my vaccine with her just once. All the others with other doctors. 300 names are involved on the investigation, not just mine.”
It is the second consecutive Australian Open that vaccines have been a big topic of conversation, after Novak Djokovic’s deportation saga in 2022.
Djokovic was initially allowed into Australia, as he claimed to believe that he had an exemption. However, he was then deported on the eve of the tournament after the then immigration minister Alex Hawke ruled that he risked becoming a focus for anti-vax sentiment.
The Serb’s three-year ban was overturned in November by the new Australian government, meaning he would be allowed to compete at the this year’s tournament. And although the nine-time Australian Open champion has said he will hold no grudges, has admitted that the ordeal will stick with him for the rest of his life.
Giorgi, who made the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2018 and won a Masters 1000 title in 2021, is almost certainly going to be continually questioned about the allegations. However, the Italian will turn her attention back to tennis, when she plays her second round match against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
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