Ace arrived in Melbourne - but Aussies had a Djoker to play
And with puns like that in the headline, I should be sent home too
Novak Djokovic is being vigorously defended by Tennys Sandgren, which must be terrible news for the Serbian tennis star as he battles to save his Australian Open dream - and some would say reputation.
It’s been a hell of a 48 hours for Djokovic, who flew into Melbourne believing his medical exemption would allow him to aim for a phenomenal 10th Australian open title, only for border officials to turn him away after eight hours of questioning when it was discovered there was a discrepancy between the visa he possessed and the documentation that had been supplied to back up his case for not being vaccinated. It has been reported that a member of his staff had applied for the incorrect permit for someone seeking an exemption.
It is often difficult to muster sympathy for Djokovic, 34, who perhaps unfairly presents as a man who has never been told “no” in his life, certainly not by his parents, who tried to shift the blame to other players when his ill-starred Adria Tour was at least partly responsible for spreading coronavirus in the Balkans.
It was dad, Srdjan, rushing to the airwaves again this morning, telling a Belgrade-based radio station that his son was being held “captive” in Australia. “Novak is currently in a room which no one can enter. In front of the room are two policemen.”
While it conjures up images of CIA black sites and waterboarding, the likelihood is Djokovic’s interrogation was a lot gentler and probably involved one of those bureaucratic forms where it asks you to print clearly in BLOCK CAPITALS.
This is where I have some empathy for Djokovic because not only are some of the questions on those visa entry forms obtuse, but his case has become intensely political. Feelings are running high in Australia, where it’s citizens have endured some of the longest restrictions on their everyday lives in the world, yet the virus has lately run rampant through Sydney and Melbourne in particular.
Today, for example, 34,994 new cases were reported in Sydney with more than 1600 hospitalised despite their full vaccination rate lying well north of 90 percent. There were 21,997 new cases reported in Victoria, with more than 600 in hospital despite similar vaccination rates.
Australians are angry. They feel they’ve done everything right, played their part, yet bad stuff keeps happening. That’s why The Age columnist Neil McMahon said Djokovic’s medically exempted appearance on court at Rod Laver Arena would be met with a deafening cacophony of boos.
“Here is an extraordinarily wealthy athlete – he earned more than $A12 million in 2021, for a career prize money pot north of $A200 million, before counting his sponsor dollars – waltzing into the country at the last minute armed with a government-approved waiver that appears custom-designed to cause maximum public revulsion. And to add insult to injury, the reasons for that decision are secret.”
It would appear that Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose approval rating has spectacularly nosedived in recent weeks, was in damage control when he said, “If that [medical exemption] evidence is insufficient, then he won’t be treated any different to anyone else and he’ll be on the next plane home. There should be no special rules for Novak Djokovic at all. None whatsoever.”
Djokovic clearly needs an ally in the tennis world and in number 96-ranked Sandgren he’s found one.
Now I don’t want to be the one to say that when Sandgren won the 2019 ASB Classic it was the low point in that tournament’s history, but I’m going to anyway. Sandgren is not just anti-science but also a fan of retweeting white supremacist and alt-right dogma, and of making startlingly homophobic comments.
To some people he’s manning the barricades on the front lines of free speech, to a lot of others he’s a Grade A nut job, but Djokovic needs all the mates he can get at the moment.
Alternatively, one of the greatest tennis players to have ever lived could just do this:
And if his beliefs made him unwilling to do that, he could have just stayed away, which is, ironically, what Sandgren chose to do.
Even scanning the news about Novak, which has been the biggest story in the sports world over the past couple of days by some margin, makes me yearn for those sepia-toned days when the only thing we had to worry about tennis stars was whether they were doping or match fixing.
I liked the conversation-starter aspect tweet by sports broadcasting champ Jason Pine.
While I agree with the sentiment and acknowledge that Bangladesh played out of their skins, outplayed their hosts and deserved the victory, I really do hope the Black Caps are “embarrassed” by the loss, not as a form of penance, but because it can be a psychological tool.
I have no scientific evidence to support what I am about to say, but I reckon one of the things that kept the All Blacks at the top of the world for so long was the fear of being embarrassed. No All Black wanted to be part of the first side to lose to Ireland, or Argentina, or Scotland or any of the Pacific Island nations.
Yes, the word is a little childish and overly emotive, but the Black Caps can use the “embarrassment” of losing at home to one of the lowest ranked sides in test cricket to establish some new goals and continue to try to raise standards.
TWTW TWTWB
Just a quick note to say that The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be returns on Friday week. I’ve put it into recess over the past couple of weeks because, like a lot of you I suspect, I lose track of days this time of year where everything feels like the weekend.
There will be no newsletter tomorrow or over the weekend as I take in the delights of Lake Hawea. If there’s a keen trail runner with experience in this part of the country, please email me a suggested route.
Gobak Djokavich..