It was game over for tennis legend Novak Djokovic when the snarky No Vax jokes began to spread.
Whatever happens at the Australian Open, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has already been decisively beaten in the court of public opinion, at least outside of Serbia. To be honest, Djokovic was never the most popular player because of his rage outbursts, so the odds were always stacked against him.
There was plenty of blame and misinformation to go around in the Australian Open. Many Australian residents have been trapped due to the country’s strict immigration regulations. Tennis Australia criticized the government for contradicting information on its own website concerning vaccination exemptions. Djokovic said that he went to a newspaper interview and a picture shoot after testing positive, which he described as a “mistake in judgement,” and that his staff committed an “administrative error” in filling out the trip form filed to Australian authorities. He claimed in it that he had not traveled in a fortnight before coming to Australia, although his own social media timeline contradicted this assertion. However, an Australian court concluded that the government had not acted fairly.
The issue emerges when he looks unwilling to pay a price for his controversial opinions. He’s effectively claiming that since he’s Novak Djokovic, the regulations, as onerous as they are, should not apply to him. His family is turning it into a narrative about Serbian victimization. It’s no longer a matter of principle; it’s a matter of pure entitlement at that point. According to ESPN, Brooklyn Nets basketball star Kyrie Irving is an anti-vaxxer athlete, but unlike Djokovic, he elected not to play home games in New York due to the city’s vaccination restrictions. Tennys Sandgren, World No. 93, withdrew from the Australian Open rather than comply with the vaccination obligation.
Even more absurd is the fact that, rather than defending his convictions, Djokovic is now demanding entry into Australia after testing positive on December 16. “What was Djokovic going to do if he didn’t get a positive Covid test?” sports journalist Ben Rothenberg tweeted. Was it his plan to qualify for the #AusOpen? “Is it possible to get a disease?”