Australian Open

[+ WilliamM]

17 hours ago, BSR said:

None, really.  If Novak isn't already vaccinated, then he will have to skip this year's AO.  Novak's only chance of playing is if he is already vaxxed and is just being super-secretive about it (remember how weird he is about privacy).

What's odd is that all 3 Serbian sports papers report that he is in Belgrade and is practicing hard -- something they've seen for themselves, not just some crazy rumor they heard.  If he knew he was skipping Australia, then he'd be on the ski slopes, not the practice court.

"Here I am,"  Rafa said as he arrives in Melbourne.

Comment:

Great news to me, at this point

Edited December 31, 2021 by WilliamM

[BSR]

In contrast to all the uncertainty about Novak & the Australian Open, he is certainly carrying on like someone who has every intention of playing.  He has moved from Belgrade to Marbella and is practicing with intensity on the Plexicushion (same surface as the AO) courts at the Puente Romano Tennis Club, even using the official AO tennis balls.

So, either Novak persists in the deluded belief that the Victoria government will ease up on its Covid restrictions (ha!), or he's actually vaccinated and just being really weird about refusing to disclose it.

 

 

[BSR]

Don't ask me how he pulled it off, but Novak will play the 2022 Australian Open with an "exemption permission."  If you're wondering what's an "exemption permission," you have plenty of company.  Nobody seems to know, and Novak will never say.  Given how super-strict Australia is with their Covid policies, he must have done some serious tough negotiating to get this mysterious exemption permission.

A medical exemption is impossible; in any case, note that Novak did not say he got one.  Some exceptions are made for the unvaccinated, for example, a person with "critical skills" or "in the national interest."  I know the Australian Open is important to Australia, but "in the national interest" is a stretch.  Does winning the AO nine times qualify as a "critical skill"?

Some Australians were shut out of their country for months.  When Ash Barty left Australia after the AO to compete on the tour, she knew she would not be able to return for 9 months.  Now they allow Novak this "exemption permission" just because he won it 9 times and the tournament is starved for star power??  Some Aussies are already spouting off on Twitter.  We'll see over the next few days what the general consensus is on this odd little exemption. 

Speaking selfishly as a die-hard Novak fan, I'm tickled pink that he's playing.  On the other hand, if the country imposes a vaccine mandate, then everyone should have to follow it -- even the world #1 and 9-time champion.  I'm pretty sure that if #97 ranked Pablo Cuevas had asked for an exemption permission, the government of Victoria would have laughed in his face.

[+ WilliamM]

Novak Djokovic saying "been spending a fantastic time with loved ones" raises the issue of his somewhat crazy father 

And not every the player at the AO can afford to jet off to a fashionable resort city in Southern Spain.

Edited January 4, 2022 by WilliamM

[BSR]

Hmm, this is starting to smell very fishy.  The AO confirmed that Novak did get a medical exemption (see tweet below).  I thought the only cases that qualify for a medical exemption are cancer patients or people (like those with rheumatoid) on immuno-suppressing drugs.  If someone knows of other conditions, please post them here.  In any case, I am baffled by what condition a world #1 tennis player could possibly have that would qualify for a medical exemption.

Only 4 active players have double-digit Slams, the equivalent of tennis royalty.  Roger & Serena were definitely out.  Rafa is supposed to play, but who knows the state of his foot injury.  That left only Novak as the only tennis royal who was definitely fit to play.  Had all four tennis royals been absent from the 2022 AO, that would have been a serious blemish on the tournament, already considered the least prestigious of the 4 Slams.

Please note that Pierre-Hugues Herbert (#111 in singles but #8 in doubles) and Tennys Sandgren (#96 in singles) had to sit out because they refuse to get vaxxed.  You can argue that they made their choice & have to live with the consequences.  True, but so did Novak.  Either grant all 3 an exemption or none of them.  But it's wrong to give an exemption only to the tennis royal just because your tournament needs the star power.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by BSR
Added tweet

[mike carey]

1 hour ago, BSR said:

Hmm, this is starting to smell very fishy. 

The degree of cynicism here on this issue, on Twitter and in the general conversation, is off the scale. The public communications about the wider Covid / Omicron issue is confused and confusing. Rules then exceptions,, mandates then changes to them.

Australians in general have a low tolerance for special dispensations, but there was surprisingly little resistance to exceptions being made for sports people to enter and leave the country when they wouldn't have been able to as private citizens In those cases, however, the rules that were waived were about who was allowed to enter and exit, not the conditions when they did so. They still had to undertake the same quarantine periods, although teams were allowed to organise their own quarantine facilities if they met the same standards of supervision and the like as state-operated facilities. This exemption doesn't pass what is called here 'the pub test', medical reasons my arse.

[mike carey]

Further to my previous post, just now I saw this on twitter

https://twitter.com/MattWalshMedia/status/1478321873477771264?s=20

[BSR]

1 hour ago, mike carey said:

Further to my previous post, just now I saw this on twitter

https://twitter.com/MattWalshMedia/status/1478321873477771264?s=20

If the fans turn against Novak because he got special treatment, it'll be water off a duck's back.  Novak is so used to being the villain when playing against Rafa and especially Roger that he's mastered tuning out crowd hostility.  What might bother Novak far more is if his fellow players turn against him.  Herbert is well-liked, dunno about Sandgren, but the rank & file will sympathize with both journeymen who got shut out while his tennis royal highness was ushered in.

In the end, you can't really blame Novak.  While it was wrong of him to seek special dispensation, responsibility ultimately lies with the Victorian government+Craig Tiley (AO Tournament Director) because they could have said no.

[BuffaloKyle]

Not so fast for Novak! He has arrived in Australia but the country is refusing to let him in.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/tennis/australian-open-2022-novak-djokovic-denied-entry-into-country-amid-backlash-over-covid-19-vaccine-exemption/ar-AASsQAV?ocid=uxbndlbing

[+ Charlie]

If Novak is barred from the the country because of the visa problem, the member of his team who applied for the wrong kind of visa is going to be in deep shit. His father is already raging back in Serbia.

[BSR]

11 minutes ago, Charlie said:

If Novak is barred from the the country because of the visa problem, the member of his team who applied for the wrong kind of visa is going to be in deep shit. His father is already raging back in Serbia.

This latest development is just crazy.  Pundits are saying that Novak will not play the AO, but this issue has inflamed all of Serbia to the point where the Serbian president is getting directly involved.  Let's see if resolution is still possible that will allow Novak entry.  Since the AO doesn't start until the 17th, Novak still has time.

Apparently Novak is locked up in a hotel room, which is understandable given that he has no visa for entry.  What I don't get is why they took away his phone.  Yikes! The guy's not a criminal.  Obviously he can use the phone in the hotel room, but still, confiscating his cell seems a bit extreme.

[mike carey]

This is absolutely extraordinary, and has been an evolving story since his flight landed in Melbourne at 1130 pm last night (0730 US EST). His visa has just been cancelled, although his lawyers are appealing the decision.

I really don't know how this will play out in the court of public opinion. He will no longer be the focus of all the discussion, but rather the various decision processes are likely to be. It will variously be seen as 'the government' not being able to make up its mind (not differentiating between the state and federal governments), one or other of the governments being seen as grandstanding or playing political games with the other, or just more generalised bureaucratic failure. Whatever else, it is likely to see Djokovic pass the 'villain' hat to someone else. There will also be a sense that they made up their minds and couldn't stick with a decision. People may not have liked the original decision, but will have moved on. They may still have booed him on the court more as a pantomime villain, but this decision will likely confer a level of sympathy on him.

The two governments concerned have some rusted on supporters and detractors, and some of the response will be coloured by those opinions, but most people here won't look at the issue through a political lens.

Edited January 5, 2022 by mike carey

[+ Charlie]

Tennis Channel commentators have just said that they have been informed that Novak is definitely going to leave Australia.

[BSR]

My outrage over preferential treatment has calmed down now that I learned that 4 other players also received medical exemptions.  To protect their privacy, neither the government nor the AO disclosed their identities.  We know Novak got one only because he announced it publicly.  Sandgren didn't bother to apply for a medical exemption because he knew he wouldn't qualify.  Not sure about Herbert, but I'm guessing his case is the same as Sandgren's.

[+ WilliamM]

The New York Times is reporting Novak Djokovic has been told to leave Australia.

[BSR]

1 minute ago, Charlie said:

Tennis Channel commentators have just said that they have been informed that Novak is definitely going to leave Australia.

I'm guessing that he will go back home, try to get the proper visa (rush order!), and then return to Australia.  With even the president of Serbia fighting for him, I have to think he has a decent chance of pulling it off.

If he does play, this will make him more sympathetic to the crowd because everybody's had to deal with the nightmare of red tape and government bureaucracy at some point. 

Once people learn that 4 other players also got medical exemptions, they should see that Novak didn't get special treatment.  I also found out that the exemptions were granted by blind review, that is, the authorities reviewed the applications without knowing the identity of the applicant.  I was certain Novak's medical exemption was a crock, but hey, maybe not.

[+ Lucky]

So the Open is closed to Novak?

[+ Charlie]

18 minutes ago, Lucky said:

So the Open is closed to Novak?

Groan...🙄

[+ WilliamM]

42 minutes ago, BSR said:

I'm guessing that he will go back home, try to get the proper visa (rush order!), and then return to Australia.  With even the president of Serbia fighting for him, I have to think he has a decent chance of pulling it off.

If he does play, this will make him more sympathetic to the crowd because everybody's had to deal with the nightmare of red tape and government bureaucracy at some point. 

Once people learn that 4 other players also got medical exemptions, they should see that Novak didn't get special treatment.  I also found out that the exemptions were granted by blind review, that is, the authorities reviewed the applications without knowing the identity of the applicant.  I was certain Novak's medical exemption was a crock, but hey, maybe not.

How is this a nightmare of red tape?

One would expect  Novak  to select the right visa. He speaks several languages, including English.

Doesn't he know how hard Melbourne,  and Australia in general, has been hit by chance covid19?

 

[mike carey]

49 minutes ago, WilliamM said:

How is this a nightmare of red tape?

One would expect  Novak  to select the right visa. He speaks several languages, including English.

Doesn't he know how hard Melbourne,  and Australia in general, has been hit by chance covid19?

 

Perhaps he should have known, but the Immigration Department official who issued the visa should have known better that it was the wrong visa and either not issued it or issued the correct one. I see red tape as being unnecessarily complex rules, this is a case of apparently clear rules being incompetently administered.

[+ WilliamM]

The visa for Australia was rather important for Mr. Djokovic 

[BSR]

2 hours ago, mike carey said:

Perhaps he should have known, but the Immigration Department official who issued the visa should have known better that it was the wrong visa and either not issued it or issued the correct one. I see red tape as being unnecessarily complex rules, this is a case of apparently clear rules being incompetently administered.

I heard from tennis journalist Amy Lundy that the hitch was the deadline for players to apply for an entry visa was back in early November, but Novak got his medical exemption just a couple of days ago.  Unfortunately for Novak, the type of visa he applied for in November is not the visa a player with a medical  exemption needs.  Novak and his team must have assumed the visa he got back in November was all he needed, without reading the fine print.

I was hoping that there was still time for Novak to sort it out and fly back to Australia, but Serbian sports writer Sasa Ozmo, perhaps the best source for all things Novak, said that it's looking unlikely.

 

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by BSR
Typo

[+ WilliamM]

A new idea

If Novak Djokovic had gotten vaccinated in the Fall in preparation for the Australian Open, his best tournament, he would be in Melbourne right now practicing.

[BSR]

25 minutes ago, WilliamM said:

A new idea

If Novak Djokovic had gotten vaccinated in the Fall in preparation for the Australian Open, his best tournament, he would be in Melbourne right now practicing.

True enough, and as a die-hard Novak fan, his refusal to vaxx drives me crazy.  I heard that Roland Garros and the French government will impose mandates on player vaccination comparable to Australia's.  Always a chance London & New York will too.  Novak could avoid all this drama if he just got the jab, as hundreds of millions around the world have, without any adverse health consequences whatsoever.

But like I've mentioned previously, Novak can be weird about some things, and one weirdness is "artificial" medicine.  He believes in natural, holistic healing and health.  He follows a super-strict, all-organic vegan diet.  He won't take anti-inflammatories, he avoids needles of any kind.  When he had that elbow injury from 2015 through 2017, he refused to get surgery, instead tried to heal it naturally.  When he finally exhausted all options, he submitted to the surgery.  Although the procedure was simple and recovery very quick, he was mentally anguished over resorting to "artificial" medicine like surgery.  Even though he bounced back to win Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018, he felt like a failure for getting surgery.

Yeah, like I said, the guy can be kinda weird.  But hopefully that background information helps people understand why Novak is anti-vaxx.  His natural holistic philosophy is the root of his AO drama, but it's also why at 34 he has the body of a 27yo.  

[BSR]

I don't know what to believe any more, but according to ESPN, Novak is still in limbo.  That is, he has not been deported yet.  He will be allowed to stay in Australia until Monday.  Who da heck knows what if anything will be resolved by then.  While Novak can afford the best lawyers money can buy and all of Serbia up to the President is fighting for him, the Australian federal government seems awfully entrenched in their position.  The drama continues ...