Among those exulting in Novak Djokovic’s Australian Open triumph Sunday, Jan. 29, were members of the far right, who had adopted the world’s No. 1 male tennis player as the poster boy for their anti-Covid vaccine mandate crusade after the debacle last year in which he was deported from Australia for coming to the tournament unvaccinated, a moment that covered neither Australia nor Djokovic in glory.
In brief, Djokovic was invited by tournament officials to play the Australian Open with an exemption — he had just had Covid, again — but was ultimately disinvited by the Labour (liberal) government, which didn’t want him to become the very poster boy he has become. Reportedly, he either lied on the visa application — or, according to him, filled it out incorrectly. At the time, he was placed in a hotel used as a detention center for illegal refugees, unwittingly but also perhaps not so unwittingly calling attention to their plight.
Djokovic was ignominiously deported and banned for three years, but then the government faced a backlash over its vaccine requirements and handling of the incident and refugees. The hotel was subsequently closed, and a new Tory (Conservative) government welcomed Djokovic back to victory.
As I’ve written on this blog before, if it had been me, I would’ve gotten the shot and lived to fight another day. A tennis-crazed doctor of mine (Federer fan) defended Djokovic, telling me that studies have shown that the vaccine may cause heart inflammation in young male athletes. (Suffering from celiac’s disease, Djokovic is scrupulous about what goes into his body, maintaining a vegan, anti-gluten diet.) All I know is that I have had five shots, am a middle-aged, unathletic female who road for five hours in a car with someone who subsequently developed full-blown Covid — and I never got sick.
Do genetics, gender, overall health and other factors matter in vaccination reaction? Of course, but this was a public health emergency. Still, people should not have been deprived of their livelihood, be it tennis playing or firefighting. All of this could’ve been avoided with a policy of rapid testing, because vaccinated or not, Djokovic could’ve still developed Covid and spread it.
The vaccine doesn’t prevent the illness or its spread. It protects you from hospitalization and intubation — the kind of severity of infection that leads to death. It was and is an acceptable risk.
And apparently, Djokovic — who gave more than $`1 million dollars to hospitals in his native Serbia at the height of the pandemic — thinks so, too. He has said he’s not against vaccinations in general, adding he has had some, or even the Covid vaccine, just it being mandated. Of course, that’s where things get tricky, because if you don’t get a flu shot, for example, it looks as if you really don’t care about the flu shot or the flu.
This being tennis, the Australian Open and Djokovic, there was more controversy this year as his father, Srdjan — who sacrificed much for his son to play professionally — was seen cheerleading among some Russian-supporting fans. Serbia, a country that has been through many wars, has long been an ally of Russia. (For more on Djokovic in the context of his country’s troubled history and obsession with its favorite son, who is more than happy to be a role model for its better angels, see Chris Bowers’ “The Sporting Statesman: Novak Djokovic and the Rise of Serbia,” revised by John Blake Publishing Ltd. in 2015. It’s a solid read that even predicts Ukraine’s turn to the West.)
Yet Djokovic, who survived the NATO bombing of his country as a 12-year-old, has spoken out against warfare. He’s lobbied for refugees and for an increased share of the pie for tennis players who will never achieve his multimillion-dollar success. He’s given money to victims of fires and floods alike, victims of climate change. Mainly, he and the Novak Djokovic Foundation — in which he partners with is wife, the former Jelena Ristic, the mother of his two children — have dedicated themselves to early childhood education, regularly establishing kindergartens in Serbia.
When Naomi Osaka was struggling with mental health issues on the tour, he was, she said, among the first players to contact her. When he and Serena Williams won Wimbledon in 2015, he called her to revive the tradition of the men’s and women’s champions dancing at the championship ball. And when Peng Shuai disappeared after accusing a former Chinese official of rape, he backed the Women’s Tennis Association and the Association of Tennis Professionals in boycotting Chinese tournaments. These are not the actions of a narcissist or a man who cares nothing for social justice, a cause that the far right labels “woke.”
People are complex creatures. I myself am no Trumper, but I can’t stand political correctness and I think if you want a neutral pronoun, you don’t call one person “they” but you come up with a new, singular word. (Much of what we consider problematic — language, vaccination — could be avoided if people weren’t so lazy.)
Like many of us, Djokovic is a mix of the liberal and the conservative, the gracious (see his post-match speeches, win or lose) and the grandstanding (what’s with the references to the head, heart, private parts and ground after he wins? It looks like a gauche, nervous, chip-on-the-shoulder defense mechanism.) It is context that drives our perception of him and us — not necessarily the qualities themselves. People don’t change. They only become more of themselves. Djokovic isn’t going to change. But the times have. We’re no longer in the pandemic.
Indeed, United States rescinds its emergency Covid policy May 11, which means Djokovic is back in the US Open, which is crucial if he is going to keep pace with his greatest rival, Rafael Nadal, in the quest for more Slam titles. (Each has 22. The rest of the pack, 10 years younger, is full of handsome, talented and, in the case of Nick Kyrgios, charismatic men who have nonetheless failed to put it all together so far.)
But the U.S. policy means he can’t play in the Masters 1000 tournaments in Miami and Indian Wells, California, in March. At this point in his career, approaching age 36 on May 22, Djokovic could just play for the Slams. (Indeed, sitting out March Could help further heal his torn hamstring, although he does need to stay competitive. And the ranking points he will earn from regular play as he resumes a fuller schedule will enable him to surpass Steffi Graff at most weeks at No. 1.) I say why wait until May? Rescind the U.S. Covid restrictions now.
Djokovic is now chasing the women’s records — not only Graff’s at most weeks at No. 1 (377) but Williams’ and then Margaret Court Smith’s for most Slams (23 and 24). (Several male posters have said that the men don’t care about the women. But isn’t it delicious, a man chasing women’s records?)
You know that whether he acknowledges it or not, Djokovic wants to be the last man standing. He already is.