So, Novak Djokovic has won the Australian Open tennis tournament – again. Djokovic was never seriously challenged at any stage, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets in the final. In winning his 22nd Grand Slam title, drawing level with Spanish maestro Rafael Nadal, Djokovic also had his revenge on Australia – and Australians.
Australia is, of course, the country that deported him for being unvaccinated in 2022. As recently as last month, polls indicated that just one in three Australians wanted Djokovic to come back this year. This clearly motivated the Serbian star: he wanted to prove his detractors wrong and, in his eyes, he did.
Djokovic hinted at his treatment last year as a trial
It marks a far cry from this time last year, when Djokovic was back in Serbia, unable to defend his 2021 title. He said that his deportation from the Australian Open in 2022 will ‘stay with him for the rest of his life’.
In his victory speech in Melbourne last night, Djokovic sought to be magnanimous to the Australian public. ‘This trophy is yours, as much as it’s mine’, he said. ‘I want to thank the people who made me feel welcome…thank you from the bottom of my heart for your love and support’.
Djokovic then hinted at his treatment last year as a trial, in which he was the victim. There was little expression of regret or apology for his own part in the debacle, even if he did concede that ‘I know you guys are tolerating sometimes the worst sides of my character, on and off the court’.
Even now, Djokovic does not seem to fully understand the white-hot anger against him last year from millions of Australians, not least Victorians in Melbourne, the most locked-down city in the world during the covid pandemic. We had to endure everything lawful authority threw at us – lockdowns; no-jab-no-job mandates; collapsing businesses; social isolation and dislocation – whether we liked it or not. The rule of law applied to us, so why shouldn’t it apply to a famous tennis star like Djokovic?
Today, Djokovic is feted as an inspirational hero by those who rallied against covid rules (however absurd these were), be they anti-vaxxers, libertarians, and conspiracy theorists. Australian senator, Malcolm Roberts, shared a strongly-worded tweet last night highly critical of his country’s vaccine policies. ‘Novax Djokovic won and kept his principles doing so. Two rare and worthy accomplishments,’ Roberts added.
In his moment of victory, however, Djokovic is not the vindicated Messiah: he’s just a very naughty boy. He didn’t deserve the adulation he received in Melbourne Park’s centre court last night – adulation underpinned by organisers declaring, at the outset of the tournament, that any barracking against Djokovic would not be tolerated.
As a tennis player, and Grand Slam winner, his devastating form this month shows Djokovic has no peer in the history of the game; he is the Don Bradman of tennis. But a year on from 2022’s deportation fiasco, for many Australians nothing has changed: Djokovic gambled on Australia’s immigration rules breaking his way, and lost. That he might have thought they didn’t apply to him, when millions of Australians couldn’t dodge the heavy-handed and, frankly, authoritarian restrictions imposed upon them over the better part of two years, will not be forgiven or forgotten easily by those who complied with everything the Australian government threw at them, whether we liked it or not. Nor should it be.
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