Novak Djokovic Leaves Australia After Losing His Bid to Stay

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/15/sports/djokovic-australia

Novak Djokovic, a Master on the Court, Keeps Making Errors Off It
Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, is at the center of some of the most divisive debates of the pandemic: Individual versus community, science versus quackery.

Excerpts:

When the tennis tour was on hiatus during the spring of 2020, Djokovic did several Instagram chats with the wellness guru Chervin Jafarieh. During one of their conversations, Djokovic claimed that the mind could purify water.

“I know some people that, through energetical transformation, through the power of prayer, through the power of gratitude, they managed to turn the most toxic food, or maybe the most polluted water, into the most healing water, because the water reacts,” he said. “Scientists have proven that in experiment, that molecules in the water react to our emotions to what has been said.” (“The people of Flint, Michigan, would love to hear that news,” the tennis commentator Mary Carillo replied.) (Wingnut)

While it appears that bureaucratic bungling is at least partly to blame, Djokovic has been the architect of his own troubles. He submitted a visa application that included incorrect and possibly misleading information, and had the temerity to show up unvaccinated in a country that has endured some of the world’s strictest Covid-19 lockdowns and that is sagging under the Omicron variant. At the very least, Djokovic’s approach suggested insensitivity, although his critics, whose numbers are growing by the hour, are more inclined to see it as callous indifference. His recent admission that he had gone ahead with an interview with a French journalist in December after supposedly contracting the coronavirus has caused especially intense outrage. (The reporter said that Djokovic did not disclose that he had tested positive.)

Whether it was miscalculation, arrogance or some combination of the two that led Djokovic to think he could show up in Melbourne unvaccinated and just play, he now finds himself isolated in the tennis world. Few players have publicly supported him. The former world No. 1 Martina Navratilova said that she had always spoken up for Djokovic and felt that he got “a raw deal” from fans who were hostile to him. But not now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/15/sports/tennis/novak-djokovic-australian-open.html