Players tune out Djokovic noise, prepare for major
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Rafael Nadal’s first Grand Slam match in more than seven months is on the horizon, he is coming back from a painful left foot problem that limited him to one tournament over the last half of last season and he got COVID-19 in December.
Plenty to talk about, right? This is, after all, the owner of 20 major championships and one of the most significant figures in the history of tennis. His mere presence at an Australian Open pre-tournament news conference Saturday was newsworthy — or, rather, would have been on pretty much any other occasion.
Ah, yes, the run-up to this Australian Open has been, and seems destined to continue to be, all about Novak Djokovic and his hopes of defending the title at a vaccination-required competition while not being vaccinated against the coronavirus. So Nadal’s words and body language spoke for many in the world of tennis when he shrugged his shoulders, exhaled and uttered this about his long-time rival’s will-heplay-or-won’t-he saga: “Honestly, I’m a little bit tired of the situation.”
“The Australian Open is much more important than any player,” Nadal said. “If he’s playing, finally, OK. If he’s not playing, the Australian to even be able to get a 10-day from an Achilles tear,” said Chalmers, who won two NBA championships as the Heat’s starting point guard in 2012 and 2013 during the Big 3 era. “It took me almost two years to come back. My thing is just being grateful for the opportunity. I’ve dealt with a lot these last four years within the basketball world. Just appreciating the little things.”
During his 10 days with the Heat, Chalmers recalls a few conversations with 21-year-old guard Tyler Herro on the team plane.
“He was just asking how it was back in the old days,” Chalmers said. “Things are just so much different. There’s a little bit more freedom within the Heat than what we had back in the day. But that’s just the evolution of basketball, the evolution of people, the evolution of minds.”
A lot has changed since Chalmers last played in the NBA. Between then and now, he has played in Italy, Greece, Puerto Rico, the halfcourt three-onthree Big 3 league and the G League this season.
One thing that hasn’t changed is Chalmers’ desire to return to the NBA.
“Hopefully another 10-day comes out of it and I get signed for the rest of the year,” he said of his goal with the Skyforce. “If that doesn’t happen, I’m staying here for the rest of the year. The goal for
Open will be a great Australian Open, with or without him. That’s my point of view.”
Unlike Djokovic, Nadal has gotten his shots. As have a total of 97 of the Top 100 in the ATP rankings and 96 of the Top 100 in the WTA rankings.
“All this could have been avoided, like we’ve all done, by getting vaccinated, doing all the things we had to do to come here in Australia,” said two-time major champion Garbiñe Muguruza, a 28-year-old from Spain who is seeded No. 3 in the women’s bracket. “Everybody knew very clearly the rules. You just have to follow them and that’s it. I don’t think it’s that difficult.”
For now, the No. 1seeded Djokovic is scheduled to play Monday on Day 1 of the year’s first major tournament, where both he and Nadal could claim a 21st Grand Slam trophy to break the men’s mark they currently share with Roger Federer.
Before that, though, Djokovic — and, it seems, everyone else with any interest at all in tennis or the latest developments related in some way to the pandemic — will wait to see what happens in a court hearing Sunday on his appeal of a second revocation of his visa by the Australian government.
Rafael Nadal He could be deported. Usually, the Australian Open — known as the “Happy Slam” — serves as a sort of celebratory launch of a new season.
Players are coming off a chance to rest, recharge and prepare during the offseason. They have a clean, or mostly clean, slate, depending on whether they played any tune-up matches. Some show up with wrinkles in their playing style. Some arrive with a new coach, eager to see how the relationship might work out.
Story lines and areas of intrigue tend to be plentiful in Melbourne. As it is, this time was destined to be a little different, given the noteworthy players who are absent for one reason or another, including Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
But Nadal’s return to Slam action for the first time since a semifinal loss to Djokovic in Paris in June is a big deal.
So, too, is defending Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka’s arrival with what she says is a fresh outlook after taking two mental health breaks in 2021, including one that ended her season in September.
Given Osaka’s frank revelations about depression and anxiety, it was meaningful Saturday when she broke into a full-on grin. When she joked around with reporters. When she appeared comfortable as can be.