Is he the perpetrator or the victim?

The last act in this undignified drama happened quickly and without further escalation. Shortly after 10 p.m. (local time), just hours after a three-person federal court ruled that his visa cancellation was legal, Novak Djokovic boarded an Emirates flight bound for Dubai and left Australia. Border guard officials escorted him to the departure gate. As if the 34-year-old Serb had made plans to escape to the vastness of the Australian outback.

It was the ridiculous end of an undignified affair that mostly produced losers. The first loser is of course Djokovic, who got carried away with the idea of ​​participating in the Australian Open without being vaccinated. The loser is also the Australian government, which, with the absurd argument that the world’s best tennis player is a danger to the country, has overridden the separation of powers and disregarded a first judge’s decision.

But the organizers of the Australian Open are also losers, who lured Djokovic into the country with an exceptional permit that later proved to be worthless and the actual origin of the posse. And ultimately the ATP lost as patron of the men’s tour, which was unable to minimize the damage in this reputation-damaging posse. In a media release, she wrote that Djokovic was one of the greatest champions and that his absence from the Australian Open was a loss to the game. “We wish him all the best and look forward to seeing him back on the court soon.”

The Great Dominator

If there was a winner, then at most the Italian Salvatore Caruso, number 150 in the world, who failed in the last round of qualification and is now allowed to take Djokovic’s place in the tableau as a so-called lucky loser. Djokovic has dominated the Australian Open for the past decade. He has won eight out of eleven titles there since 2011. Only South Korean Hyeon Chung (2018), Uzbek Denis Istomin (2017) and Stan Wawrinka (2014) beat him on Melbourne’s hard courts.

Chung and Istomin benefited from their opponent’s physical problems. Only Romand has become really dangerous for Djokovic in the last decade. He won the first of his three major titles in 2014 after beating Djokovic.

Because Wawrinka is also missing in Melbourne this year, Rafael Nadal is the only Melbourne winner (2009) who remained in the field. The 35-year-old Mallorquin comes from a longer forced break. Due to a foot injury, he only played 29 matches in 2021 and lost his title in Roland-Garros, among other things. He made his comeback a week ago by winning one of the pre-season tournaments in Melbourne.

At the Australian Open he now has the opportunity to become the sole record holder with a 21st major title. But the Australian Open is the tournament where Nadal has been the least successful. Again and again, physical complaints slowed him down. The top favorite is the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who failed here a year ago in the final against Djokovic and around six months later in New York prevented the Serb’s career Grand Slam with his first major title.

Martial tones from Serbia

The German Alexander Zverev and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas also belong to the group of contenders. However, the focus should continue to be on Djokovic, at least in the first few days of the tournament. As quietly and quietly as he left Melbourne, the reactions that spilled over from his homeland were just as loud and martial.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said in Belgrade: “For me, the decision is a scandal. I find it incredible that two different courts came to two completely opposite judgments within a few days. I think it shows how the judiciary works or, more correctly, doesn’t work in certain countries.”

Even louder was the reaction of Djokovic’s father Srdjan, who wrote on Instagram: “The attempted murder of the best athlete in the world is over, 50 bullets hit him in the chest.” That’s probably part of the drama surrounding Novak Djokovic. Advising him to be vaccinated would have been better than making him a martyr and thus fueling nationalist feelings. The environment is part of the problem that has put the tennis great in this predicament.

The question of who and based on which facts Novak Djokovic had promised a special permit to enter Australia as an unvaccinated person remains unanswered to this day. The world number one had relied on this and had therefore become a pawn in the political populism of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government. Djokovic is not to blame for the escalation. But even more than a perpetrator, he is a victim.