Locker room divided on Novak Djokovic

Opinion in the locker room has fluctuated ever since Novak Djokovic announced he had been granted a medical exemption.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic provokes a range of views among fellow players

There will be some players who, for selfish reasons, hope that Novak Djokovic fails in his bid at a Melbourne court on Monday to overturn the cancellation of his visa. The path to an Australian Open title will be a lot easier if the record nine-times champion is absent.

“If he’s allowed to play, he’s going to be angry and he’s going to be a tough motherf … er to beat,” Nick Kyrgios said on Saturday, summing it up in his inimitable straight-talking style.

This is not to say that Kyrgios is one of those who desperately hopes that Djokovic and his team of lawyers fail to persuade a Federal Circuit and Family Court judge that the decision by Australian border officials to reject his medical exemption from a Covid-19 vaccine was wrong. Even Kyrgios, who has labelled Djokovic “a tool” among other insults in the past, cannot help feel some sympathy for the bureaucratic minefield that the Serbian finds himself in. Since Thursday he has been detained in a run-down Melbourne hotel, converted to an immigration detention centre.

“Obviously it’s a bit of a mess with what’s going on, and I just don’t think we (Australia) have gone about it the right way,” Kyrgios said. “Honestly I hope it all gets sorted as soon as possible. For the sport we need him here, it’s that simple. He’s one of the most influential sportspeople probably of all time.

“I just want it to end. I’m feeling for him now. It’s not really humane, is it, what’s going on? If this was a normal person they wouldn’t have to deal with all this sort of media side of bullshit. His life’s probably hard enough as it is, and I know what that’s like. I just hope it all gets sorted soon.”

Opinion in the locker room has fluctuated ever since Djokovic announced via a social media post on Tuesday that he was travelling to Australia after being granted a medical exemption. Initially there was confusion from some players as to how the world No.1 had been able to take advantage of, in their eyes, what is an unfair loophole.

This meant that initially there was little sympathy when news first emerged that Djokovic had not been allowed to proceed through passport control after landing in Melbourne. But then a noticeable shift in the general mood followed when it was confirmed that Djokovic was being held in a hotel normally used for asylum-seekers after eight hours of overnight interrogation at Tullamarine airport.

“Nobody wants the No.1 in the world to be left without playing a GS (grand slam),” Feliciano Lopez, the experienced Spanish veteran, tweeted. “Sometimes what starts badly can end worse. Australia comes out of all this very badly. What a shame.”

It is safe to say that eyebrows were raised again on Saturday when court documents revealed that the grounds for Djokovic’s exemption was a positive test for Covid on December 16, allowing him to defer vaccination for up to six months. One incensed player privately told The Sunday Times that he found it hard to believe that this was a legitimate reason given that he had not already taken up the opportunity to be fully vaccinated before last month.

Other players have noticeably been careful not to be critical in public before the matter is heard in court on Monday. Rafael Nadal, the 20-times grand-slam champion from Spain, reasonably pointed out that there were “consequences” for Djokovic as a result of his decision to seek an exemption, while US Open champion Daniil Medvedev did not exactly offer a show of overwhelming support for a man he has previously described as a “great guy”.

“If he had a fair exemption from the rule, well, he should be here,” Medvedev said. “If he didn’t, he shouldn’t be here. To be honest, it sounds easy, but again, it seems very tough in real life.”

The irony is that Djokovic’s reputation among players and spectators had actually improved in recent months. It is well documented that he has never matched Nadal and Roger Federer in the popularity stakes, but the standing ovation he received from a 23,000-capacity crowd during his defeat in the US Open final last year showed a new level of respect for his efforts at coming so close to the calendar grand slam.

“I feel like I was blessed to experience love from the crowd and support from the stadium that I have never experienced before in my life in New York, and actually not in many places around the world,” Djokovic said with candour after that defeat.

His standing in the locker room had also received a boost. Djokovic was seen to be looking out for the rank and file on the tour by co-founding the Professional Tennis Players Association, a union aiming to achieve an “equitable, modernised, and sustainable competitive environment for players”.

One of his beliefs is that the considerable prize money in the sport should be spread down the food chain to those competing full-time on the lower tiers.

There are also countless tales of Djokovic generously helping younger players, whether it be with advice or practice sessions. “Me and Novak actually used to be friends and practised at events,” Kyrgios added. “I remember Novak was actually one of the only players when I was young that came towards me and said, ‘If you ever need anything, feel free to reach out and I’ll be open to help.’

“I feel like he’s helped us (in Australia) as well. During the bushfires (in 2020), he was supportive and was helping us out. We are so quick to forget and the media is so quick to jump on things like this and forget he’s actually helped us, like he’s reached out. He didn’t have to do that. Most athletes wouldn’t do that. They’re selfish, most athletes are.”

The problem for Djokovic is that he often undoes these admirable gestures with some form of tone-deaf stupidity. His behaviour has made it difficult for many spectators and viewers to warm to him, with a prime example taking place at the 2020 US Open when he was defaulted from a match for hitting a ball in frustration that made contact with the throat of a female line judge. Instead of fronting up at a press conference afterwards to apologise, live television footage showed him immediately departing the Flushing Meadows site in shame.

It was at the same venue, 12 years earlier, when he and the home favourite Andy Roddick nearly came to blows. “I was talking trash, and he came out and beat the pants off me (in the match), as he would, but then kind of chirped afterwards,” Roddick would later recall in 2013. “So he comes straight (into the locker room), I went right up to him, had him up against the locker. But then I realised his trainer was a little bit bigger and I kind of checked myself.”

Djokovic has also misread the room in his handling of his entry for the Australian Open. Melbourne is renowned as the world’s most locked-down city, with residents under six separate stay-at-home orders, for a total of 262 days over the past two years. After months of speculation over his vaccination status, announcing he had received an exemption to play in the tournament with a triumphant post on Instagram was never going to end well.

If Djokovic is successful with his appeal, then expect to see the indignation of local residents in full force when he contests his first-round match. He has successfully handled hostile crowds on numerous occasions in the past, but the atmosphere awaiting him inside the Rod Laver Arena on January 17 or 18 will be unlike anything he has ever experienced before.

The Sunday Times