Novak Djokovic: Part II
If you haven’t read part one, you might want to start there. Here’s the link to that post, My Idol: Novak Djokovic. I really wasn’t going to do a part two but, here we go.
I have tried to write part two for a couple of days now and every time I start I just get too angry to finish. However, I woke up this morning to a notification from ESPN saying that Novak Djokovic leaves Australia, 'disappointed' after court dismisses deportation appeal. It honestly had me feeling a bit sorry for him… until i snapped out of it and remembered how selfish he is.
I will start by saying how much of a clusterfuck this entire situation has been. I find it annoying and inconsistent that first he’s told he can enter, then his visa is cancelled, then it’s reinstated and then it’s revoked again. I think that the Australian Open should have had better communication or understanding of the visas for the players coming in and the communication to the players who had similar issues could be improved. With all that being said, this could have been easily avoided.
Like I said in my previous post, when you go to someone’s house, you have to abide by their rules because it’s THEIR house. If you don’t like it, then just don’t go to their house. It isn’t even about him being vaccinated or not. It really isn’t. it’s the fact that he and his toxic team think that they can bend the rules for his benefit. Why is it that all of the other players in the draw managed to submit their medical exemption documents by the deadline? Why is it that every other player can follow the rules? Why is it that the people who also had their visas cancelled, managed to leave the country without making it a huge scandal? (Granted, they aren’t the best player in the world so they don’t have as many eyeballs on them.)
Why is it that the best player in the world should get special treatment? I was hesitant to say this in my previous post as I have no hard evidence, but my gut feeling is that he was not COVID positive in December. I have a feeling that that result was fabricated in order to receive the medical exemption. Again, that is not a fact and it is entirely my opinion and to be honest, I don’t really care what you have to say about it. You come to my blog to read about my opinions and I’m not coming to you for yours. You can agree or disagree with me, that is totally fine.
As the saga continued day after day, I kept getting notifications with the updates on my phone. I got related articles of people on his team saying the craziest things. The most infuriating one was said by his father. I’m not a parent so I cannot understand how it will feel to think that my child is perfect and can do no wrong. The reality of it, though, is that nobody’s perfect and we all make questionable decisions at some point or another. Djokovic’s father compared his son to Jesus Christ, himself, and said the way the Australian government was treating him was like when Jesus was crucified. Are you fucking kidding me? That was the first thing that came to mind, but then I saw the way some people were responding online. Then I saw some of my friends that I follow on instagram posting about how Novak is a good person and doesn’t deserve this. I was truly in shock. Novak is a hero for the country of Serbia and the people really do treat him as such. And I mean, why not? He has done so much for that country. His wife runs the Novak Djokovic foundation and they do tremendous work for the kids. Love that. No really, I mean that. But just because you do great work for the kids and your country does that mean that the rules don’t apply to you?
Some of the people I follow on Instagram has been posting all of these amazing things that Novak has done but that doesn’t mean that he is above the law and mandates. So many players have been speaking out about it and taking sides, but how come they have to be vaccinated and how come they have to jump through all of these hoops to keep the public, players and staff safe.
Separately from the country of Serbia and Novak himself, the next insane thing I saw online was coming from the French sports minister. Djokovic will be allowed to play the French Open without a vaccination. Why am I upset about this? Let me take you back to 2018 when French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli said that Serena’s catsuit would no longer be accepted at the French Open. For reference, here is the outfit:
Don’t get me wrong, I know Serena is considered to be the queen of controversy herself, but this is just bullshit. She is fully covered and not disrespecting the game by wearing this outfit whatsoever. When I saw it, I thought she looked like a fucking superhero. It was so empowering, even Nike thought so.
What does this have to do with the Djokovic situation? First, we have a powerful woman of color wearing an outfit that up until this moment in time was not and is still not considered traditional for the sport and the federation and tournament organizers are telling her what she can and can’t wear. Despite the fact that she is fully covered. They don’t seem to have a problem when a white, top player pulls up her skirt so high that you can quite literally see her ass coming out of it. Tell me race or gender has nothing to do with this.
The next bit is about something super important to me: mental health. There is no one size fits all for mental health and mental treatments. Everyone is a product of their environments and that’s why everyone is so different and unique. What is triggering to me could not be triggering to you at all, but that doesn’t make it any less real for me. Being a professional tennis player and competing in these big tournaments such as the Australian Open and the French Open comes with obligations. Players are obligated to participate in pre and post match interviews with tons of reporters. Win or lose, you have to show up and take the heat or the praise from reporters who have no idea what it’s like to be out there (usually). These interviews are mandatory and that’s how it’s been for a long time. Naomi Osaka struggled tremendously with her quick rise to the public eye but many people didn’t even know about Osaka until she won her first set of big tournaments (Miami, Indian Wells, US Open) in one season. She struggled with her ranking for many years and couldn’t string back to back wins together for a long time, despite her amazing talent. Mental health has been something she has struggled with for years and she still managed to find success despite her struggles.
In 2021, she announced she wouldn’t be participating in the post match interviews and it created a huge uproar around the tennis community. Again, the players were split and sided with and against her. Just because these post match interviews have been in place for so long doesn’t mean that they are right. If players want to opt out, they should be allowed to, particularly when they are willing to accept the fines applied for skipping out on these interviews. The French Open made it impossible for Osaka during this time when she made this decision, knowing she would face a lot of backlash, to focus on her mental health. Instead of supporting her or helping her, or even just accepting her decision, the French Open did everything they could to pressure her into doing the interviews, to the point that she withdrew from the tournament. Again, a woman of color facing tremendous backlash. Here is one of my favorite pieces on the whole Naomi Osaka/French Open situation:
So to wake up and read that the French Sports Minister is ready to welcome unvaccinated Djokovic, a white male, with open arms is pretty fucking infuriating. I’ll say it again, tell me race and gender do not play a factor.
When I woke up today and read the news that Djokovic was being deported, I was honestly sad. This is not good for the sport and it’s not good for the tournament. This bullshit drama is going to linger and cloud the amazing slam that is the Australian Open. I wish he was the person I thought he was all those years ago. I wish he was as selfish as he is when he’s trying to think of ways to help the kids of Serbia. I wish he would put others before himself and I wish he would respect the rules and guidelines in place, just like the other players have.
