Djokovic´s Dilemma

First topic message reminder :

Djokovic has spent a lot of time complaining about COVID restrictions during the pandemic. But I don´t recall him yet missing a big tournament as a result. For at least one tournament, I seem to recall it was the Olympics, he tried to imply or say he was very doubtful about attending, presumably in his attempt to use his star power to get at least some rules changed. When this didn't work, when they called him on his bluff about not attending, he folded and went anyway.

Now, he has got two choices, and neither seems great from his perspective and given his beliefs.

1. Get vaccinated and attend the Australian Open. This would be a total fold, a clear admission of bluffing, and a very clear admission that he has been trying to use his star power to get rule changes rather than genuinely not planning to attend. It's sort of an admission of defeat.

2. Don´t play the Australian Open. This means giving up on one of his best chances to retire with the most slams. His attendance at this event could yet make all the difference. This also risks the vaccination issue coming up over and over again at other tournaments. Will other slams have similar rules? Is he also prepared to miss them?

It seems pretty obvious that the organisers of the AO went looking for any loophole they could use to get everyone there for the tournament.
My guess based on how it seems to generally work elsewhere with these forms is that the anonymous nature of the approval they were using to suggest it wasn't a way to 'smuggle' Novak through actually just means all they did was check if the reason given is an acceptable reason or not, likely with some sort of 'you may be asked to prove it' note. At which point his high profile and very public views lead to everyone getting picked out of the line for a more thorough check and found wanting.

Thanks for everyone`s perspective, especially for the view from within Australia.

As far as I can tell from the reporting

--Djokovic was tested on or before 16 December
--The positive result was known on 16 December
--It isn´t clear whether this was communicated to Djokovic on this day
--He was then out and about without a mask on 17 December

I think this looks fairly bad

Even if he hadn´t had the positive result, he ought to have known that there might be a positive result because he had to have chosen to get tested for a reason, and so perhaps should have stayed at home 17 December even if he didn´t know (the exception to this is that he had no reason to think he was positive, but was getting tested once a week or something as a routine as some privileged people do).

But, let´s say he gets home on the 17th December and only then gets the positive result. Wouldn´t it then have been the responsible thing to do to go and social media and say "I just found out I am COVID positive, please everyone that met me today get tested". As well as contact directly people that he met that day. And, as far as we know, he didn´t do anything like that.

We still need to let the dust settle on this and see what happens in the court hearing, and see what Djokovic himself says after he gets home, and see what else comes out in the coming week. However the preliminary assessment is this Djokovic´s reputation has been shot, in a way that will be realistically difficult to recover from.

People tend to ignore the bad things you do up to a point and be generous and then all of a sudden the knife gets stuck in and people suddenly start bringing up again the things from the past they previously claimed to have forgiven or forgotten or given the benefit of the doubt of. Instead of "great player but with at times lukewarm fan reaction" Djokovic is now "villain".

Also looks very bad for Tennis Australia. Set a deadline of 10th Dec, then ignore that when a request comes in from Djokovic. Also makes the claim that the panels judged applications anonymously look a bit suspect - here's a late application, I wonder who that could be from that hasn't already applied?

No name Bertie wrote:Anyway there does seem to be some hard to understand issues - the State of Victoria appointed an independent board to assess the exemptions - so these people should have been well aware of new regulations because it was their job to know I presume.

JuliusHMarx wrote:Also makes the claim that the panels judged applications anonymously look a bit suspect - here's a late application, I wonder who that could be from that hasn't already applied?

Again, the simplest explanation would seem to be that people (as was quite likely the point) are massively overestimating what that panel actually did. Seems difficult to not know whose application you're looking at while also deeply scrutinising their paperwork.

https://7news.com.au/sport/tennis/djokovic-set-for-grilling-over-open-fate-c-5238762

The plot thickens as more facts gradually emerge.

And it now seems less than certain that a definitive ruling will actually be reached on Monday.

I personally (not that anyone in Australia or anywhere actually cares ) remain of the view that Tennis Australia has been seriously incompetent in granting the exemption in the first place, and have effectively (even if not intentionally) aided & abetted Djokovic in his highly disingenuous tactics.

Australian authority seems to be trying to delay the case but court rejects it. As predicted I think a lot of this stems from errors on Australian side. Why else would they be trying to delay the case?

I think the government will find a way but could you actually imagine Djokovic ended up playing and won. Pretty much an impossible task given he hasn’t played a single match in over a month and will have been in confinement with no practice for over a week. That and the entire crowd against him, if he somehow got in and pulled that off it would be the most ridiculously impressive victory of all time.

I still think he and others will be sent home but if he does play he will surely go out in opening rounds regardless

I don’t go with the notion that Djokovic - IF he is admitted to the country in time to play - would necessarily be at high risk of exiting the tourney early. Ok, so he hasn’t played tennis for a few weeks  ….? Why should that be a major issue ??

The greats do special things.  I mean ……back in 2017,  Federer hadn’t played any tour tennis at all since the previous Wimbledon, a period of around six months. And yet he then went on to win the AO. By comparison, Djokovic has played around 20 competitive matches since Wimbledon, so should be in far better shape than was Federer.

These are very different circumstances. No matches since November, stuck in a hotel room with no practise whatsoever, court case pending. You literally couldn’t get worse prep. When fed played in 2017 there weren’t many form players, Djokovic was non existent at the time etc

Self inflicted poor preparation isn't the same as being out with injury for half the season.

If Djokovic doesn’t get his act together once & for all, he’s likely to encounter similar issues at the other Slams. No Tournament Directors will want to create this sort of mess for themselves - it should be a massive warning to them. Perhaps time the ITF took a stand and brought an end to any possibility of highly dodgy ‘exemptions’.

slashermcguirk wrote:………..No matches since November, stuck in a hotel room with no practise whatsoever, court case pending. You literally couldn’t get worse prep……….

Oh dear. It IS a worry.

Can’t imagine who might be to blame. Am just wondering how it could have all been avoided …… now let me think

Djokovic has tended to thrive against hostile crowds in his career - great Davis Cup record and come out on top against crowd favourite Federer several times in big matches.

That said, at this stage of his career he needs more time to play into form at start of a slam than before and therefore court practice time is invaluable. Right now I would probably put Medvedev as more of a favourite (assuming of course Djokovic will be allowed to play).

It is a sorry saga though and no-one comes out of it very well, from point scoring politicians to tournament organisers and of course Djokovic and his team.

He will be heading home soon. Funnily enough I think viewership will take a big hit without him. Had he played and been the villain of the moment, I reckon the viewership figures for the oz open would be through the roof. Djokovic vs the crowd almost more than his opponent. It would have been fascinating to watch!

Anyway there were huge errors by many and all of this would have been avoided with clearer guidelines but it has been entertaining. I still of course think Novak should just get vaccinated but I doubt he will. Each to their own.

For now I couldnt care less who wins the tournament and probably wont watch much of it. Djokovic will presumably get the 3 year ban so this tournament could well cost him winning the most slams but that's his issue as this was his relative 'shoe in' slam having won 9 and the last 3

I don't see why he would get the 3 year ban. There's been no info about the Russian player getting one.

I am not sure if he will but did see numerous mentions of it being the case quite frequently. Regardless I cant imagine he will be overly keen to return to the Australian open after what has gone down

Good riddance to bad rubbish in that case, he won't be missed.

Soul Requiem wrote:Good riddance to bad rubbish in that case, he won't be missed.

Chill out, he is just a tennis player. You really do have such a bitter hatred of the guy. I think you are wrong by the way, even kyrgios who cant stand Djokovic has said it will be a huge loss to the tournament. I rarely listen to a word that guy says but I think he is spot on this time around.

He is just a tennis player hence your infatuation with him being a bit odd. Tennis is at a stage now where it doesn't need Djokovic or any of the old guard, it's time to move on.

Whatever you say :-)

Just seen that Djokovic has won his appeal. All eyes are going to be on the Australian Open it seems and maybe for the wrong reasons. What the political fallout is going to be only Pal Joey and maybe time will tell.

Even now the saga may not be over as Aussie Govt could STILL revoke his visa.

Don't think that will happen, though. Yes, Djoko can be a complete idiot at times. But this has been a monumental foul-up from the start, what with exemptions, state regulations differing from federal ones and posturing politicians.

No one has come out of this very well but I think Djoko will now play and we can switch attention from one court to other courts.

What a pathetic decision by the judge. Djokovic should be banned from the tour. Vile, deplorable individual.

Djokovic positive test result now released. Confirms that the result was recorded at 8pm 16/12. Going to be some tough questions for him to answer as to when he was given those results, given he was pictured at events unmasked on both 17/12 and 18/12.

The decision today did not decide by the way that it was wrong to revoke Novak’s visa. It was a procedural failure that Novak was not given sufficient time to get advice and respond accordingly before the decision was made. I’d be slightly surprised if the Oz Government doesn’t take further action given the media attention.

WHAT    A  MESS  

I have never been less pleased to see my own prediction (posted on Jan 8, ref a legal fudge) come to pass.

And what an insult to the people of Victoria.

Court documents mean we now know that Djokovic was aware on December 16 of the positive result of his PCR test ; and yet he still wilfully put many others - including young children - at risk, by going out & about attending various public events. Shameful in so many ways.

Just have a feeling there's going to be another twist to this whole saga.

It's almost as if Government counsel Christopher Tran conceded defeat in court but then added that the Immigration Minister, Alex Hawke, might still use his personal power to cancel Djoko’s visa... however they could consider giving him a waiver on the 3-year re-entry ban. Maybe the lawyers on both sides made some sort of deal that Djoko doesn't know about?  


Djordje Djokovic, Novak's brother, said this about an hour ago:

"He fought the fight not just for himself but for the whole world. On the other hand, we have the system in Australia which has decided in favour of all the facts and there was no reason for another decision, and now we are getting information that clearly the Home Affairs Minister is above the court.

“Definitely this is politics, this has all been politics. We are active on all social media. The latest information is they want to incarcerate him. At the moment we are consulting lawyers and PR people.

“Novak is with his lawyers in rooms where the hearing was held, and he is currently considering all options. This was a great defeat for Australian authorities, and they are taking this badly.”

Srdjan Djokovic, Novak Djokovic’s father, will hold a press conference at midday local time (10pm AEST), Serbian media are reporting. (11am GMT)



This has been handled very poorly indeed.
PM Morrison is now in an even more precarious position, politically, after the court decision was handed down.

You can imagine people now saying 'why did we bother with vaccines, masks and lockdown orders?' (which is pretty silly too) and 'will the Government now also pay for more court challenges from people (citizens) who were denied entry even when double vaccinated?' It's such a mess.

If Alex Hawke does use the 'personal power' of the Minister; it makes Australia look bad. Almost like a personal vendetta against Djoko. It also weakens (or disrespects) the decision handed down by Judge Kelly today. It's Banana Republic behaviour and makes a real mockery of both the Legal system and the way Government is run in this country.

I think he (the PM) should step up to the cameras and make the tough announcement that: Djokovic 'must leave' or force Alex Hawke to do that... and then try and pick up the pieces and claim the Government 'did the right thing' (as always). That would also infuriate lots of people even more though. It's already started actually... the media is calling for the Governor General to step in.

Alternatively, if he cowers away in the background and doesn't get Hawke to exercise his 'personal power', then the PM will be like a slow-burning steak on a barbecue for the next 4-5 months. The Opposition and media will have a field day discrediting him.

So I think ScoMo will go for Option 1 above for purely selfish reasons and try to hang on and survive until the Election by talking his way out of it in his usual ex-Ad Man style  ... "I'm always right", "that's what I said!"... much like Boris, who can also talk his way out of wet concrete. Not that everyone believes what they both say though...

However, I think this time the electorate is really fed up. Like the UK, however, the Opposition are the same sort of people - a bunch of know-alls and hypocrites, all in it for themselves and not a particularly attractive alternative at this time or any other time either.

We may as well call this whole thing Djokogate or Novaxgate.

Meanwhile Kyrgios has tested positive. He announced it to be 'open and transparent'. I can't help but think that if Djokovic had been open and transparent he would not have spent a few days in prison being treated as less than human.

I don't think Djoko's brother saying This is a great defeat for the Australian authorities' will help Djoko regain favour with the Australian people. His family are such obnoxious people.

Crack out the popcorn. Huge decision to be made because if they do over rule and send him home, I think thats a 3 year ban, we will have seen the last of Djokovic at the Australian open. On the positive side, his last match will have been beating Medvedev in the final :-)

This all comes back to the fact that the mess up here came from the oz side. Had it been made more clear, Djokovic and others surely would never have travelled to Australia in the first place. I am not sure why people are getting worked up about the judge, a person doing their job with the facts at hand.

JuliusHMarx wrote:Meanwhile Kyrgios has tested positive. He announced it to be 'open and transparent'. I can't help but think that if Djokovic had been open and transparent he would not have spent a few days in prison being treated as less than human.

Maybe Kyrgios made a late night rendezvous with Novak at the Quarantine prison hotel?

I was unaware Nick was moonlighting as an Uber Eats delivery boy during his spare time.

What a shambles eh? This may prove to be even more entertaining than the tennis! So Novak wins this round, but we could be in for more court antics in due course.

One thing that came out of the court hearing was that we now know that Djokovic knew of his positive PCR on the evening of the 16th, ahead of maskless public engagements he held on the 17th and 18th. There are now only 2 possibilities: 1) He received a fake test result, or 2) He legitamately did test positive and mingled with large groups of people anyway. Either way, this is bad optics for Novak.

JuliusHMarx wrote:I don't think Djoko's brother saying This is a great defeat for the Australian authorities' will help Djoko regain favour with the Australian people. His family are such obnoxious people.

Yeah, that's the worst thing he could say. That will almost certainly seal Novak's fate.

Also, if the father gets stuck into the Australian Authorities during his press conference back in Serbia... it will be like kicking a hornet's nest (the media here will rub it in) and the Australian Government will not feel so bad about having been forced to act in deporting Djoko.

You'd think his lawyers would debrief him and tell him to tell his family to keep their mouths shut... but I don't think they'll be able to resist.

The other thing: all the Serbian tennis fans out cracking champagne in the streets tonight, celebrating the court decision, might be in for a shock.

They could even go on the rampage if the court decision gets over-ruled by the Minister and then we could see the Victorian Police or Riot Squad involved. They are quite heavy-handed. It's a little better than in the 80s, though, when they would just shoot crooks in the streets during those suburban showdowns. Like in Animal Kingdom... that's what it was sort of based on.

See... check this out.

Police use pepper spray on Djokovic fans
By Ashleigh McMillan and Paul Sakkal
9:16pm

Victoria Police have pepper sprayed fervent Novak Djokovic supporters who mobbed a car that was exiting the building, home to his legal team, in Melbourne’s CBD.

The black Mercedes emerged from the CBD building’s carpark about 8.45pm. Fans, many in Serbian coloured clothing, mobbed the car as it moved at a snail’s pace down King Street.

The chanting and dancing around the car became more intense and eventually people were dancing on top of the car and banging on its windows.

Around this time, police began moving people away from the front of the car.

Some fans then reacted by shoving officers and verbally abusing them.

Police used O.C spray (capsicum/pepper spray) to move them along.

After the crowd dispersed, a large group of fans confronted police and hurled bottles and verbal abuse at them, causing the police line to fall back.

The commotion was over by 9pm, but many fans and police officers were seen clearing their eyes from the pepper spray.

It’s not clear if the car was actually carrying Djokovic.

He was not in the front seat or the back left seat. The back right window had a shade blocking the view from outside.



It's going to escalate I'd say.

On the other hand, if Djoko plays, then there could be even more out of control protesters causing mayhem in and around the Tennis Centre.

We already get the odd person screaming out something in the middle of a game... imagine the verbal ammo they now have?

News just in... 4 minutes ago.

9.30pm
Immigration minister confirms he is considering cancelling Djokovic’s visa again
By Anthony Galloway

A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said in a statement a short time ago:

“Following today’s Federal Circuit and Family Court determination on a procedural ground, it remains within Immigration Minister Hawke’s discretion to consider cancelling Mr Djokovic’s visa under his personal power of cancellation within section 133C(3) of the Migration Act.

“The Minister is currently considering the matter and the process remains ongoing.”

Think I heard, about 2-3 hours ago now, that the Minister only has "4 hours" to do something. So not long to go.

Actually, they've just said he won't announce the decision tonight... so obviously we can expect something in the morning.
Maybe they're getting the crowd control plans in place to counteract the backlash if it goes back the other way? Makes sense.

JuliusHMarx wrote:I don't think Djoko's brother saying This is a great defeat for the Australian authorities' will help Djoko regain favour with the Australian people ....

I hope this is a translation error otherwise they are not helping themselves. The media could use it to throw at the PM to push him to act.

Born Slippy wrote:.... The decision today ..... procedural failure that Novak was not given sufficient time to get advice and respond accordingly before the decision was made. ....

Interesting. So regarding Djokovic's appeal, it was accepted because proper procedure was not followed when revoking the visa, and says nothing regarding the validity for the actual revocation (presumably it was valid).

slashermcguirk wrote:Crack out the popcorn. Huge decision to be made because if they do over rule and send him home, I think thats a 3 year ban, we will have seen the last of Djokovic at the Australian open. On the positive side, his last match will have been beating Medvedev in the final :-)

This all comes back to the fact that the mess up here came from the oz side. Had it been made more clear, Djokovic and others surely would never have travelled to Australia in the first place. I am not sure why people are getting worked up about the judge, a person doing their job with the facts at hand.

Not as worked up as the entire Serbian nation and other Djokovic fanboys at the ABF officials who were just doing their jobs with the facts they had at hand.

Oioi wrote:What a shambles eh? This may prove to be even more entertaining than the tennis! So Novak wins this round, but we could be in for more court antics in due course.

One thing that came out of the court hearing was that we now know that Djokovic knew of his positive PCR on the evening of the 16th, ahead of maskless public engagements he held on the 17th and 18th. There are now only 2 possibilities: 1) He received a fake test result, or 2) He legitamately did test positive and mingled with large groups of people anyway. Either way, this is bad optics for Novak.

Some people don't seem to care if he was spreading covid to kids or not.

I am not saying it was ABF officials fault. This was clearly down to poor communications from the start between different organisations / authorities within Australia. Had these communications been clear, none of this would have ever happened and Novak and others would have just stayed at home. That is basically what this comes down to. The reality is as the judge outlined, Djokovic appeared to tick all the relevant boxes as was outlined to him but he was then turned away. Of course he should have just got vaccinated (as should the other nearly 30 players who seemed to apply) but they would never have bothered coming if everything was communicated properly

There is talk of a Press Conference to be held in Serbia, arranged by the Djokovic family, and due at 13.00 GMT.

They may well spend some time complaining about the ‘inhumane’ treatment meted out to Novak. So it's worth looking at just how differently his case has been handled (from the point of his arrival at MEL airport) versus Joe Bloggs.

1. He was questioned rigorously by ABF in the same way as any other arriving visitor might be - so no difference there.

2. He had access to top-notch, very expensive*,  lawyers to assist with an appeal : a luxury NOT generally available to Joe Bloggs (*Australian Govt have since been ordered to pay their costs, reported to be upwards of Aus $500K)

3. He was held in an immigration detention centre, pending his OWN decision to appeal - so, no difference there

4. His case was heard FAR more promptly than would normally happen for Joe Bloggs

5. The Judge gave an immediate (ie same day as hearing) oral decision - in marked contrast to cases involving all other appellants, who are invariably made to wait for long periods, often being held in detention for months on end.

All, in all, Djokovic has received very privileged treatment of a sort not available to mere mortals.

If Djokovic hadn't brought all this to the attention of the world with his ill advised tweet, the Russian woman would still be in Australia - I wonder why Saint Novak didn't get his legal team to help with her case.

https://twitter.com/BenRothenberg/status/1480526579314814977

Djoko's PCR test looks even more dodgy - the publicly available information showed his test to be negative - until people started posting screenshots, then shortly afterwards it changed to positive.

Djoko's mum said "He was subjected to torture" according to a BBC translation.
Surely he can sue the Australian government for that.

Hard decision now. They either have to rule against their own court (or appear to be doing so) which means Djokovic and his family and lawyers and supporters and half of Serbia would go nuts.

Or they have to let him play, which means one rule for the rich and famous with fancy lawyers, one for others.

Can they (continue to) allow him into the country but not the tournament? Haven't heard that option being talked about? Is that why Novak rushed to be photo's at the tournament? So he can later say "well they already let me in".

This story just seems to have so many twists and turns! You can almost imagine Djokovic in the final two sets to one up while police officers stand by the court waiting for the Prime Minister to make a ruling about new information on whether to stop the match and arrest him.

If it's true that no publicity is bad publicity, then this is certainly all good news for the AO. TV viewing figures will be up on day one, and maybe even for the whole tournament....

Djokovic's first match (if he plays) will be the most watched first round match of a grand slam for a while.

It's going to be quite a reception for Djokovic if he does get to play the first-round (and subsequent rounds) match. Will the chair umpire be able to maintain order?

Would also be hilarious if, after all this palava, Djokovic got knocked out in the first round.

"Is it true that on the 16th of dec he tested positive and he knew he was positive w covid?"
"Yes, the whole process was public and all the documents that are public are legal"
"Was he at an event on the 17th of dec?"
"Okay so uh this press conference is adjourned"

Duty281, would be even more hilarious if he won the tournament.

If Djokovic does play and is not booted out of Australia as is in the power of the immigration minister, then at least the Aussie crowd will get an opportunity to voice their disapproval.

slashermcguirk wrote:Duty281, would be even more hilarious if he won the tournament.

Quite possibly the greatest achievement of any human being in the history of the world, I'd say.

For entertainment value, let's hope he gets to the final.
For justice, let's hope he loses in round one.

Whoever he draws in R1 should probably negotiate a couple of sponsorship deals immediately.

If Djokovic plays, I think there will be a big attention on R1 and then it will die down a bit and the news cycle will move on to something else.

I think they should consider reducing ticket sales for that one court so they can fill the court up with a greater amount of security measures than usual, with stewards standing by the court but looking into the crowd like a football match.

Fresh evidence emerging today, this time regarding the Travel Declaration form submitted by Djokovic as part of his visa application. It appears that he was ….er ….  less than truthful in relation to his most recent travel history (ie immediately prior to arrival in Australia)

All in all, it’s hard to imagine a more questionable application. And yet, there he is, happily practising and free to enjoy his time in the country ; in marked contrast to all those who do follow rules, but are nevertheless barred, even if that means being denied the opportunity to visit seriously ill family members.

Well for Novak Djokovic, it was short-term or short-lived victory but he will lose out massively in the long run.

For so long now Djokovic has strived to be appreciated and loved by tennis fans across the globe. He has openly admitted to being frustrated by the lack of love coming his way compared to Rafa and Roger. This Australian Open fiasco has kyboshed any remote hope he will end up much-loved in the tennis world. That will hurt him far more than if he'd have accepted not being granted entrance into this Australian Open.