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Novak Djokovic will be back on the tennis court in Dubai on Monday. For further tournaments it should be uncomfortable for the Serbs. The example of Rome shows this.
Five weeks have passed since Novak Djokovic’s expulsion from Australia. Not enough time to let enough grass grow over the immigration chaos. Nevertheless, the number 1 will be back in action on Monday. Djokovic is also welcome in Dubai without a vaccination and will meet Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the first round.
“I miss tennis after everything that happened,” Djokovic said in the run-up to the $2.94 million event. But not everyone misses him.
Djokovic is accommodating the easing
Former French Open winner Adriano Panatta shot against Djokovic. For him, a performance by the Serbs in Rome during the clay court season is unthinkable: “I believe that the law must be the same for everyone. Allowing his participation causes more and more confusion by sending the wrong message. I find his presence unacceptable.”
It would therefore not be a loss for Panatta if the number 1 were not a guest in Rome. “The Australian Open, for example, was a great tournament even without him. The same applies to the Internazionali di Roma. For me, he either gets vaccinated or he better stays at home,” Panatta told the Adnkronos news agency.
The tournament organizers will probably judge the situation a little differently. In the end, however, the politicians set the pace in this matter. In this respect, things are not looking bad for Djokovic, because the Italian Secretary of State for Sport, Valentina Vezzali, has already announced that Djokovic will play in Rome because there is no obligation to vaccinate.
How does the audience react?
The general relaxation of Covid will in all likelihood make it easier for Djokovic to take part in tournaments again. Nevertheless, it will not be comfortable for him because he has also made some enemies with the chaos in Melbourne.
Djokovic has proven often enough in the past that he doesn’t need the support of the audience to unpack his best tennis. And bowing to the pressure to vaccinate is no longer an option for him anyway, as he revealed in an interview with “BBC”: “I will not play in Paris and Wimbledon either if I have to be vaccinated. That’s the price I’m willing to pay.”
Djokovic may be spared this price, but it remains to be seen how he will deal with the antipathy of certain people.