Australian Open 2022: Novak Djokovic in limbo with No.1 ranking at risk

Novak Djokovic’s mum has changed her tune as the circus stays in town.

Novak Djokovic practises at Melbourne Park while his participation in the Australian Open remains in doubt Picture: AFP

I propose an exhibition match between Novak Djokovic and Josh Frydenberg. The federal treasurer had a crack at being a professional tennis player in his gap year after high school. He hits a decent ball and a formal clash between an Australian parliamentarian and Djokovic seems a reasonable enough way to resolve all current disputes.

Unlikely, I guess. Yet the way this Australian Open is going – think three-ring circus – anything’s possible. After the off-again, on-again, off-again draw ceremony was on again on Thursday afternoon, Djokovic has learned who he will play at the Australian Open next week. He’s just unsure of a few minor details. Whether he’ll be playing at all. Whether he’s about to be knocked out of the next three Australian Opens. Whether he’ll be sitting in an Australian jail, or a Spanish jail, or a Serbian jail, or in a penthouse suite in the Melbourne CBD when the hooter goes for play to begin at 11am on Monday. It’s never been lonelier at the top, I suspect. Djokovic needs his mindful meditation more than ever.

He’s drawn fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round. Funny old game, eh? They should play it in Belgrade. He has a cushy path: 25th-seeded Italian Lorenzo Sonego in round three; the more dangerous, if currently injured, 17th-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils in round four. The bloke he beat in the Wimbledon final, Italian Matteo Berrettini, is slated as his quarter-final opponent and then either Rafael Nadal or Alex Zverev are likely to pop up in the semi-finals. All of which is the height of speculation until we get a result in the tense qualifying battle between Djokovic and Immigration Minister Alex Hawke.

My hope? Winner plays Frydenberg. Djokovic versus Hawke is dragging on longer than John Isner and Nicolas Mathut going 70-68 in the fifth at Wimbledon in 2010. The biggest development on Thursday, at the time of writing, apart from Spain and Serbia investigating Djokovic for offences that carry maximum sentences of a stint in the clink, was the change of tune by Djokovic’s mum. He’s not the messiah after all, she says. If we may steal a line from Life of Brian, which seems apt, perhaps the family is willing to concede he’s just a very naughty boy.

Djokovic’s disobedience of vaccination requirements threatens to kill his deepest personal and professional ambitions. Personally, respect for him is going further south. Most of his peers are taking social distancing to spectacular new heights at Melbourne Park. No-one in the locker room wants a bar of him. One-and-a-half metres isn’t far enough. No jab? Fault. No second jab? Double-fault. Whose fault? Nobody’s but his.

He’s desperate for his 21st major title. He wears his world No. 1 ranking as proudly as the cross around his neck. But he ain’t getting any younger. A changing of the landscape is already underway. If the 34-year-old Djokovic is kicked out of the country, and if the Open is then won by Daniil Medvedev, the 25-year-old Russian will take the top ranking. That’s a major deal. Medvedev is only going to get better; not so for Djokovic. He will face visa issues for the American swing in March, further harming his ranking. His reign may be done if he gets the old heave-ho from Australia. Always confident of winning his all-important 21st major, he’s suddenly looking at the lock.

He was called a modern-day Jesus and/or Spartacus and/or leader of the free world by his family last week. Now his mother, Dijana, perhaps miffed the Queen of England isn’t returning her calls, has had a change of heart. Having accused Australia of “torturing” her son, she softened her stance on Thursday, no doubt hoping a more humble tone may get her son on to Rod Laver Arena so he can annihilate Kecmanovic. “He’s just a tennis player. Don‘t throw him out,” she said before Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s afternoon press conference. I could have sworn the PM was going to point Djokovic to the pavilion at Tullamarine and quote the lyrics of Ariarne Grande ft. Iggy Izalea: “I got one less problem without ya.”

Alas, it was not to be. The circus rolls on.