Clouds over ‘happy slam’
THE so-called “happy slam” is not so happy this year. There are only two days before the Australian Open gets under way and a sense of chaos reigns at Melbourne Park as the Novak Djokovic saga hangs in the air like a bad smell.
“It’s killing me,” one player said, exasperated that the build-up to the first grand slam of the season had been overshadowed by this seemingly endless controversy.
Another expressed his frustration that the action on the court at various warm-up events this week had been forced to take a back seat, essentially because of one individual’s decision not to get vaccinated.
Djokovic practised at the Rod Laver Arena on Friday. The session was open to journalists and photographers for only 15 minutes, although a cunning camera crew managed to circumvent the time limit by using a helicopter to obtain footage from above the stadium.
It is completely understandable that players are fed up with an overbearing situation that has rumbled on since Djokovic confirmed on January 4 that he was travelling to Australia after being granted a medical exemption from a Covid vaccine.
Sympathy appears to be in short supply after his admission this week of a mistake on his immigration form and a failure to follow isolation rules in Serbia after testing positive for the virus on December 16.
“He (Djokovic) has been playing by his own rules,” Stefanos Tsitsipas, the world No.4 from Greece, told the Indian network WIO News. “Putting a grand slam at risk, I don’t think many players would do that.
“The stats say 97 per cent of (top 100) players have been vaccinated and did what they had to do in order to come and play in Australia. A very small minority chose to follow their own way, which makes the majority look like they are all fools.”
There also seems to be little appetite for forgiveness among the Australian public. In one poll, 83 per cent of almost 60,000 respondents said they wished to see Djokovic deported.
They will get their wish, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke cancelling his visa – for a second time.