The chain of failures and lies ends with the expulsion of Djokovic

At 10:30 p.m. in Australia, Novak Djokovic took a plane to Dubai, where he would stop before landing in a European country that he did not want to reveal. The Serb left Melbourne two weeks earlier than he would have liked. Without the possibility of having jumped on the track more than to train. His second match in court he lost. No longer an option to appeal. Judge James Allsop was in charge of handing down his sentence and confirming his deportation.

Thus ended twelve days of uncertainty, since the tennis player announced his trip. Of comings and goings, of trials, statements, demonstrations and tug-of-war. Djokovic, the nine-time Australian Open champion, left the tournament expelled from the country. And maybe it won’t come back anymore.

Allsop gave the reason to the Australian immigration minister, Alex Hawke, to close the doors to Belgrade. He gave the reason that the politician put forward as good. Djokovic, by not being vaccinated, is a danger to the country’s public health and a boost to the anti-vaccine movement, at a record time for cases in Australia and in the middle of the campaign for the injection of the third dose.

The blackest chapter in Djokovic’s career. Worse than being kicked out of the US Open for hitting a line judge with a pitch. Worse than organizing a tournament in the middle of a pandemic in which infections multiplied. This deportation may cost him being the best tennis player in history, surpassing the 20 Grand Slams of Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal, in a scenario in which he has won the last three editions. And all for not wanting to be vaccinated. Because all this would have been avoided if the Serbian had yielded, as most of the circuit did when they learned of the restrictions to play the first Grand Slam of the year. Ninety-seven of the top one hundred tennis players in the ranking decided to go through the vaccine. He does not.

And that’s why he won’t play for history. He will have to wait for Roland Garros, where the organization has not yet put obstacles, beyond certain restrictions such as not being able to use a residence to his liking or not being able to use the same facilities as those vaccinated. You will also have no problem getting into Wimbledon, as long as you quarantine for five days upon arrival in the country. The question of New York remains, but also of the rest of the tournaments. Will he be able to play Indian Wells? Miami? What will be your next step?

“I am tremendously disappointed,” the world number one said in a statement. “I am going to take some time to rest and to recover, before I speak again on this matter. I respect what has happened at trial and will cooperate with the authorities in getting me out of Australia. It has been very uncomfortable for me to have been the center of attention during the last few days and I hope that now we can all focus on the tournament, “he added.

fudge

But Djokovic is not the only culprit in a total bungling and from which the organization of the tournament has distanced itself. And it is that the tennis player landed in Australia because he had a permit to play based on a positive on December 16. Those who gave the go-ahead upon his arrival later changed their minds upon seeing the rejection of the social mass. Then all the player mistakes followed. The poorly completed documentation, ignoring that he had traveled from Belgrade to Spain in the fourteen days prior to his transfer to Australia, an erroneous visa application, doubts regarding the veracity of the positive and why he did not make it public, and the confession of that he knew on the 17th that he was infected and still went to a face-to-face interview without informing the journalist.

The chain of failures and lies legitimized the Australian government, which won in court the second time and achieved its goal of expelling the ‘Djoker’. A lost battle for the best in history, for many, and that he will never forget. When he lost an Australian Open before he could even pick up the racket.