Malek Jaziri v Marko Djokovic

I hadn't noticed but apparently Marko Djokovic (Novaks younger brother) was awarded a wildcard into the Dubai tournament. His current rank is 869 so this must have been a bit of a surprise for a few of the players ranked above him.

It was more of a surprise for poor Malek Jaziri. He had been awarded the final wildcard for this tournament only to have it taken away and given to Marko instead. He was told with only 14 hours notice if he still wanted to participate he would have to play a qualifying match...

http://www.sport360.com/opinion/malek-jaziris-disgraceful-wildcard-snub-dubai-slap-face-arab-tennis

Marko went on to lose in the first round. But (according to Marko) this was partly due to the fact that other players try harder against him because of his older brother... Oh Marko! I hope something has been lost in translation because if not... You have a lot to learn!

http://www.tennis.com/articles/templates/news.aspx?articleid=16653&zoneid=25

He needs to borrow his brothers egg chamber

Yes I agree Malek Jaziri deserved a wild card he is 28 and only now seems to be making an impression reaching a high of 102 last week.

Taking it from Nole, always blaming something/someone else.

Which Djokovic will be appointed as the next Serbian Fed Cup captain then?

Bit of a shame for Jazeri. Doesn't matter that the Marko Djokovic's ranking is lower per se, but he is not used to this level of play at all.

Should TD's be forced to honour wildcards? This happened to Chiudinelli in Basel too (WC was given to Murray) before he got back in as a lucky loser.

Obviously this decision was made because of Djokovic's ties to Djokovic.

Not fair.

Ironically Jaziri lost to Golubev in the qualifying, the exact same guy who beat Marko Djokovic in R1 of the main draw (!).

He did take him to three sets though!

prostaff85 wrote:Ironically Jaziri lost to Golubev in the qualifying, the exact same guy who beat Marko Djokovic in R1 of the main draw (!).

He did take him to three sets though!

Which means with a larger crowd behind him he coudl have won.
AT the end of teh day, it shows again that tennis is a big name affair.

I cannot imagine Bolt asking his sister to race along him in a 100m WC meeting.

If the article is true it was absolutely crazy of all concerned.

We can't assume that the Djokovic family knew who would have to step aside and we don't know precisely what Djoko's involvement was, but it's crystal clear to me that Marko should never have accepted the wildcard into such a prestigious tournament, especially at such a late stage, and particularly if he (or his brother) had to lobby.

Nobody's perfect, but I like Djoko and this leaves an unfortunately unpleasant taste in the mouth.

Will any journalist have the balls to ask the tournament director how s/he justfified the Marko wildcard? Will they have the balls to ask Novak if he discussed this directly with the tournament director, and if so, was this discussion before or after he confirmed he would definately be participating.

I think Jaziri's progress in the tournament is worth noting. also. Shame he didn't get through.

Sunday, 26 February 2012
Qualifying - Final Round
A Golubev (KAZ) d M Jaziri (TUN) 63 06 63
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Qualifying Singles - First Round
M Jaziri (TUN) d [WC] M Al Nabhani (OMA) 61 62

It's also worth noting that Golubev knocked out both Jaziri and young Djokovic, meaning they could have played each other. Also Jaziri turned out to be the tougher opponent for Golubev, costing him 12 games compared to 5 for young Djokovic. EDIT: Sorry I missed the comment above which covered most of this.

Looks like Nole was in Dubai from 22.02.12 and taking part in promotional photoshoots before the W/C was announced. Whatever else happened it seems most unlikely that it came down to "I play if he plays"

barrystar wrote:Looks like Nole was in Dubai from 22.02.12 and taking part in promotional photoshoots before the W/C was announced. Whatever else happened it seems most unlikely that it came down to "I play if he plays"

I very much doubt indeed that it would have come down to that. However, it's extremely likely that Novak did put a bit of pressure on the organisers to give his brother the WC. Probably something more along the lines of "if you want me to come back..."

It's a very hard WC to justify, and I'm extremely disappointed in the decision, and in Novak if indeed it was him pushing for it.

I'd be surprised if anything was explicitly discussed like that. Maybe they should have some rules for wildcards. This guy's career high ranking is about 700, he shouldn't be getting anywhere near this tournament.

For a 500 tournament like this, the rules could be for example that the tournament is only allowed to offer wilcards to players who meet certain conditions, e.g. either a) career high ranking in top 30 b) ranked within top 75 in last 2 years c) current top 150 d) local player in current top 250.

And in my opinions wildcards for slams at least should be on ranking alone, not nationality.

Henman Bill wrote:
And in my opinions wildcards for slams at least should be on ranking alone, not nationality.

I agree that Marko should never have been offered or accepted the W/C, but I think your structures might go too far - then they would not be wildcards, and Goran would have had to pre-qualify for Wimbledon 2001 since he was at #125.

However, the sad truth seems to be that without some sort of stricture people will choose to behave badly.

Goran would have qualified under all three of my suggested criteria, so that's wrong.

If you're British you only need to get to about 200 and you get free entry to a slam. If you're from many other countries you get no such luck. It just isn't fair.