What a difference one year makes. Ashleigh Barty was still playing professional tennis and her third round opponent was Camila Giorgi ranked no. 66. Despite Barty’s dominance in the Australian Open, Italy’s Giorgi was ranked no.
30 and she was showing promise on the WTA tour. At present she is under investigation by the Italian police of providing a fake vaccination card in last year’s Australian Open (and the U.S. Open) to gain admittance to play tournaments throughout the year.
It is assumed that she hasn’t been vaccinated at all, no matter the reason or excuse. She’d gotten the card from a physician who wasn’t in favor of vaccinations and was known to hand out many false certificates to celebrities and public outstanding people.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency will be getting involved but Giorgi may be taken out of the tennis tour depending on the outcome and looking at an extended period of downtime from the competitive courts. Camila has won three WTA titles in her career already but it’s in hopes that this investigation doesn’t find that she’d did anything wrong and to not take her off theTour.
“I’m very happy for what I did this week,” she gave a broad smile when in 2021 she won her first WTA title at the Canadian Open in Montreal. But sincere times like those should continue to be, if Giorgi doesn’t want to see her career slip out from under her.
Depending on how the investigation goes, the immigration departments in Australia (and the United States) will also come into the consultation. Further investigations have revealed that her brothers, mother and father-coach have also been involved.
“When I’m on the court I’m very focused,” Giorgi had said at the press conference in Montreal upon winning her first title. But it appears now that she has to be focused if innocent to get out of this very delicate and impinging situation.
If the case gets more involved, the Italian may have to sacrifice ‘The Happy Slam’, the Australian Open which is considered one of the favorite grand slams of the touring year.
