Meanwhile in Australia…
This week we pissed off the entire nation of Serbia
I don‘t follow tennis as a sport, but even I know that Novak Djokovic is a big deal. The Serbian player arrived in Australia this week to play in the upcoming Australian Open, believing he had permission to enter the country under a COVID-19 exemption rule that says that anyone who has had COVID in the last 6 months can enter the country without being double vaccinated.
There is no such exemption
He has been detained in a hotel while the courts figure out whether he can stay, but it looks likely that he will be booted out of the country. It’s an embarrassing mess.
The Djokovic backstory
Locally, people have been pretty dark on Djokovic in the lead up to the tournament. His apparent unwillingness to confirm if he has been vaccinated is interpreted as being anti-vax. This, coupled with his apparent expectation that he can just turn up and play has got up the noses of a lot of people in a city that has suffered through two years of rolling lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations.
Basically, a lot of locals think he is acting like a jerk and the whole thing smells of people with money and privilege being allowed to get their way. There has been speculation that he would be booed on court by local spectators. That’s a big deal in Australia because we love our sport and that’s just not us.
But equally, we invited him to our country to play. And the public humiliation of an invited guest being detained at the airport and shoved into a quarantine hotel is not us either.
So, jerk or not, a lot of people (myself included) are just feeling sorry for the guy and our anger is gradually shifting to another target — Tennis Australia, the organizing body of the tournament.
The local papers are uncovering that Tennis Australia was advised by Border Force (our embarrassingly named border-customs agency) on multiple occasions that the whole “having had COVID means I don’t need to be vaxxed” exemption was not a thing. But TA pressed ahead anyway, inviting players to play, possibly without considering whether they could enter the country.
Whether this was a genuine mistake or whether TA believed they could force their way around the border controls is the question many are asking. If it turns out to be the latter, then retribution from a city that has suffered some of the world’s most stringent lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations will be vicious
Not the only show in town
For what it’s worth, other sports are coping. The Ashes is on at the moment — it’s a bi-annual tournament where Australia feels better about its colonial past by crushing England in cricket. The USNWT toured prior to Xmas, as did the Brazilian Women’s Football team. Yes we have strict rules, but these sporting tours can and are taking place without needing to break them
So, my money is on Novak getting kicked out of the country and not being able to play. He may lose his #1 ranking as a result. Tennis Australia will have to explain to the world why it should continue to host a major tournament. And there will be lawsuits. Lots of lawsuits…
