Djoker humiliation nothing to celebrate

HEADS should roll at the very top of Tennis Australia after the farcical mishandling of Novak Djokovic’s on again, off again participation in the Australian Open.

No matter what you think of Djokovic and his alienating views on vaccination, Australia’s handwashing humiliation of the world No.1 is a national shame.

For a sportsmad country that talks a good game about fair play but rarely delivers, this is a new low which could and should have been avoided with clear and decisive leadership.

Every Australian knows how pathetic our state and federal governments have been throughout the whole Covid pandemic, allowing petty politics to rule over common sense.

Australian families have had enough and are right to be furious when they see pampered multimillionaires getting treated differently to everyone else because they have borne the cost of the government’s incompetence.

But Djokovic does not deserve to be blamed for the entire fiasco and should never have flown all the way to Melbourne only to be denied a visa by grandstanding authorities who should have made the tough call much earlier.

Forget all the spin you’re hearing about how the same rules apply to everyone: just ask any Australian who was prevented from travelling to see their dying family members during last year’s lockdown while Hollywood movie stars came and went as they liked.

And the suggestion that the rules are crystal clear is the biggest furphy of the lot when no one has a clue what’s going on because the rules on PCR and rapid tests and QR codes change from state to state and from day to day.

One of the finest athletes the world has ever seen, Djokovic is used to getting his own way and having the red carpet rolled out for him. But it’s little wonder he couldn’t figure out what was going on because no one else could get a straight answer.

It hasn’t helped his cause that Djokovic is also one of the most polarising figures in the game, especially in Melbourne, where he has won the Australian Open a record nine times but never enjoyed the same level of popularity as Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.

Perhaps he should have just stayed away this time but the lure of playing in Australia is great for Djokovic because the stakes are so high.

If he wins the tournament, he will capture an unprecedented 21st grand slam singles title, moving clear of his greatest rivals Federer and Nadal.

He should be applauded not blamed for wanting to be the best.

Djokovic is supremely talented but seemingly obsessed with his tilt at history, and his critics have accused him of being arrogant and entitled and tone deaf to the sufferings of everyone else during the pandemic.

Some of that may be true but even if it was, there is still no justification for the cynical way he has been portrayed as the fall guy for everyone else’s mistakes.

The whole world has now seen for themselves just how ugly things have become in nanny state Australia after the opportunist manner in which authorities backflipped when the heat was turned up.

The angry mob who didn’t want him to come to Australia in the first place will be feeling triumphant after Djokovic was refused a visa on arrival, even though he poses no more of a risk to them than their own neighbours. That genie is already out of the bottle with case numbers exploding around the country, but the message from the government is for everyone to stay calm because this is the only way out of the pandemic.

If that’s the case, why is Australia closing the door on a tennis player who will be subject to the strictest biosecurity protocols imaginable and who has more to lose than most if he does test positive to Covid?

Of course, it’s just the optics that have conspired against the Serbian but the image of him sheepishly returning home without making it on court will do more damage to Australia’s international sporting reputation than his.

As the boss of Tennis Australia the buck stops with the Craig Tiley, so he needs to take the stand and explain what really happened or fall on his sword.

Julien Linden is a sports reporter with The Daily Telegraph