AFTER a standoff that lasted for days, Novak Djokovic has been asked to pack his bags and head out of Australia. The world’s best men’s tennis player travelled to Australia for the year’s first Grand Slam event, a tournament he won a record nine times. He was not only on a quest to win a 10th Australian Open men’s singles title, he was also on a mission to become the most successful men’s tennis player of all time.
The Serb, 34, was gunning for his 21st men’s singles Grand Slam title, the one that would have separated him from fellow greats, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who also have 20 each. All Djokovic needed to feature in the tournament was to conform to the rules including taking the Covid-19 jab but he refused. The Australian Open will go on without Djokovic.
The world is currently in perilous times, with the relentless and ravaging Covid-19 pandemic taking lives, changing lifestyles and confounding even the most qualified people in the field of science. To confront the Covid menace, safety protocols – which are snubbed by many – have been put in place around the world.
These measures are obviously for the greater good of humanity. Globally, millions of people have died from the scourge and still counting. Abiding by the safety protocols put in place is a sacrifice that the human race should embrace to contain different variants of the mutating coronavirus.
However, there are those who express anti-vax sentiments and they oppose the use of vaccines or regulations. One of them is Djokovic, who was aiming to become the greatest player in the history of men’s tennis. The basis of the standoff is that for some personal reasons which he refused to make public, Djokovic will not take the Covid-19 vaccine.
Australia has some of the world’s toughest border policies and requires that visitors coming in must either be vaccinated or have a medical exemption certificate.
Djokovic claimed that he had an exemption but Australia refused him entry and detained him on January 6, 2022 when he arrived.
Unlike regular travellers and visitors who are unable to push back, Djokovic used his privileges and brand power to win the first battle by taking Australian immigration to court and having his deportation order reversed.
However, the Australian government stood its ground and revoked the visa again, citing the need to avoid a setback in their efforts to fight Covid-19 and prevent civil disobedience. The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, insisted that he cancelled the visa on the grounds that Djokovic’s presence in Australia might be a risk to public health and “good order” of the Australian public and “may be counterproductive to efforts at vaccination by others in Australia.”
Djokovic headed to court again because of his anti-vax stance instead of preparing to play on the tennis court, but lost the wrong-headed appeal when the judges upheld Hawke’s decision to cancel his visa and deport him on public health grounds.
In truth, Djokovic can refuse to take the vaccine; it is well within his right to do so but he should not put others in harm’s way. Unfortunately, his anti-vax sentiments became a major distraction for the Australian Open in view of the media attention it attracted and he became a victim of his exaggerated sense of entitlement. He should have stayed back in Serbia if he did not want to take the jab.
There was no way the Australian government would have bent the rules for one person when a majority of the Australian population has been vaccinated. Obviously, the Australian Open has lost its biggest star and potentially some revenue this year. But the global public health issue goes beyond fame and fortune; it was a case of applying the same rules to everyone. Essentially, every player at the Australian Open this year would have been vaccinated by the time the tournament begins.
Australians, and people from around the world, have had to make big sacrifices in the fight against Covid-19 in the interest of public health. Sports fans across the world, including at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, have to either be vaccinated or be tested repeatedly to be able to watch their teams.
Djokovic cannot pretend that he is unaware of the millions of lives that have either been lost to Covid-19 or adversely affected by its ruinous impact. The outspoken Serbian world class tennis player is clearly an activist with strong views on different subjects including sports, politics and human rights.
While his activism has often been shrugged off because it has no direct bearing on his career, this time, he is paying the price for an unforced error. The whole saga would have been avoided if he had simply followed the rules like everyone else. He refused to take the vaccine and his medical exemption was dodgy as he was seen in public without wearing a face mask, when he was supposed to be isolating due to his purported positive test.
His disregard for the simple rules came back to haunt him, and his privileged status could not save him. Instead of enjoying the tennis fiesta in Melbourne and becoming the greatest tennis player in the history of the game if he won the Australian Open, he was escorted by armed guards to leave Australia like an “undesirable element” based on the deportation order. The world number one tennis player does not deserve our sympathy because he behaved badly.
While the Australian authorities have their part of the blame for allowing a loophole which Djokovic exploited to get his visa in the first place, it is commendable that they fought back fiercely and refused to bend the rules, even while under pressure from the anti-vaxxer movement and claims of political persecution by Djokovic’s parents and the Serbian government. That was a cheap blackmail and it was of no effect.
Australia has sent a strong message through Djokovic to the world’s elite: you cannot always have your way; just do the right thing. Djokovic, as expected, said in a statement after Sunday’s verdict that he was “extremely disappointed”, but he could feel even worse in the coming days.
He has put a huge dent on his legacy, and might never get the opportunity to win that 10th Australian Open title. According to Australian law, he faces a three-year ban from entering the country after this deportation order. If that is upheld, Djokovic will be 37 years old by the time he is eligible to play another Australian Open. Even as good as he is on the court, he cannot deliver peak performance at 37 in a very demanding sport like tennis.
Also, with many countries rolling out strict measures to combat the rampant Omicron variant of Covid-19, entry into other countries for the three remaining Grand Slam tournaments will be harder. One defence for Djokovic is that he is fighting for a cause to allow for “freedom of choice”.
Some even compared his situation with that of the late boxing legend Mohammad Ali who refused to be drafted by the United States army in the 1960s. The comparison is a classic example of false equivalence. While Ali refused to go to war because he was a conscientious objector who did not want to take lives in the ill-advised Vietnam War, Djokovic is doing the opposite; he is fighting against public health measures that save lives.
Ali made huge sacrifices for his cause. He forfeited his world title and millions of dollars in prize money, and risked jail time. He lost the prime years of his career because he refused to go to a war that a vast majority of Americans were against.
On his part, Djokovic was simply fighting for personal gain; he just wanted to circumvent the rules in order to win an important title in his tennis career. Ali told the world why he refused to fight in Vietnam (“I have no quarrel with the Viet Cong”) and highlighted the racial injustice in America.
Djokovic has not revealed the reason behind his anti-vax stance; he has not told the world why he will not take the vaccine that about 97 percent of his fellow players have taken without adverse effects.
With over $200 million earned in prize money and much more in endorsements in an amazing career, Djokovic is clearly a brilliant and successful tennis player; a legend in the making and a hero to millions of aspiring tennis players but he cannot commit errors on and off the court because of his superstar status. He should be a good role model. The recent episode was clearly an unforced error and he had to pay the price.
The coast is now clear for Nadal to fight for his 21st Grand Slam title. If he can make it at the Australian Open in spite of recent setbacks, Nadal will become the world’s greatest tennis player of all time; otherwise, he would have to wait until summer to try again at the French Open.
