I adore athletes with an (un)healthy dose of quirk; I don’t like Djokovic. I never have. Perhaps it’s because his astonishing abilities with a racquet are diametrically opposed to his ability to take the temperature of a room.
If Djokovic wasn’t utterly tone deaf, one suspects he and his heaving entourage would have remained in sunny Belgrade for the northern hemisphere winter. How is it not going to piss off a whole country when it appears as though you’d do anything to avoid compliance with that country’s laws.
Loading
I can’t think of a more boring story than the months-long game of vaccine peekaboo that the world’s highest-ranked men’s tennis player has chosen to play with the world. A more omnipresent and idiotic sideshow you couldn’t more easily find.
It was always obvious, based on Djokovic’s libertarian public commentary these past two years, that he wouldn’t be vaccinated against COVID-19. Did anyone actually think the opposite would be true?
If boring was an Olympic sport, then the Serb’s vaccine “storyline” would be the fastest qualifier in every event from the 100-metre sprint through to the boring marathon. Who would have foreseen the saga of former rugby league player Blake Ferguson, adding a postscript from Japan to his chronicles of infamy, would be interesting by comparison?
We now know the answer to the “is he / isn’t he” pantomime of nonsense. We know because Novak thought it eminently Instagrammable that he was granted an “exemption permission” to participate in the Australian Open.
‘I can’t think of a more boring story than the months-long game of vaccine peekaboo that the world’s highest-ranked men’s tennis player has chosen to play with the world.’
Obviously though, nobody – not even Djokovic’s own travelling circus tent – thought there was a distinction between a medical permission to play in a tournament, and free passage to enter the country in which the tournament is being held.
The Australian guidelines on vaccination provide only a few skinny avenues to proceed down for exemptions. We’ve no right to know the medical justification for the granting of a vaccination exemption for Djokovic. That is private information which should remain so unless the Serb waives his right to confidentiality.
If Djokovic had the ability to read the room, the principle of utter transparency might be a prudent PR strategy to adopt. There is a part of me that harbours a concern though, that Djokovic would very much like to come to our country, win our tennis championship for a 10th time and, if he could, he’d also happily ignore our rules.
You might detest Djokovic; conversely, you might adore him and celebrate all he’s achieved in a storied and incomplete career. Either way, it would be wise to trust the medical exemption system used to grant Djokovic his “exemption permission” to play in the Australian Open. Djokovic is no lone wolf; a number of players will participate at Melbourne Park with a medical exemption. A score of applications have been rejected.
Novak Djokovic holds the Australian Open trophy in 2021.Credit:Getty Images
Exemption applications are assessed by two independent expert medical panels on a depersonalised basis, where the panel has no information about the identity of the applicant. Whether panel members can reasonably deduce the identity of the applicant based on the submitted evidence is perhaps a different matter.
However, even if Djokovic is one of the main tournament drawcards, it is facilely ill-informed Twitter invective to conclude that his medical exemption was cooked with ticket sales in mind.
The people of Australia have given up an immense amount these past two years; the people of the Australian Open’s home city of Melbourne have foregone much more. It should be expected that Djokovic merely stepping foot on an entirely empty Rod Laver Arena would be the trigger for a cacophony of boos and catcalls. But it would be sensible to blame the system, not Djokovic for complying with it.
But of course, this is the same arena in which the very mention of COVID vaccinations – during the trophy presentation to Djokovic, for the ninth time, last February – was met with hectoring and vituperative noise. Complex people, Victorians.
Loading
Whether Djokovic takes centre stage at Melbourne Park in a little over a week is now something for the courts to determine. Whether the Australian Border Force decision to stop Djokovic’s entry can withstand a legal challenge is complex.
But it’s a determination that will be made dispassionately based on law and evidence, and in a vacuum that prohibits the bile of the Twitterati and the commentary of our cabal of ubiquitous epidemiologist bobble-heads, who no doubt think they will be gifted tickets to the Logies in 2022.
Whether these vaccine and entry rules are actually and properly proportionate in all the circumstances is a separate question, but an entirely vital one. This is especially so where Australia’s health threats, which we do not do nearly enough to combat, are threats of a magnitude higher than the coronavirus.
Watch the ATP Cup live on Channel 9, 9Gem and 9NOW
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
No love for Novak, but blame for sorry saga lies with the system
Source: Philippines Alive
