Novak Djokovic has been brutally mocked after his recent admission. Photo / Photosport
Novak Djokovic has been brutally mocked after his recent admission. Photo / Photosport
KEY POINTS:
Novak Djokovic has been brutally mocked after his recent admission.
Tennis fans and pundits have ripped into world No. 1 Novak Djokovic for claiming he is not anti-vax, despite admitting he is willing to miss grand slam tournaments to avoid getting the jab.
Djokovic found himself in a world of controversy when he landed in Melbourne ahead of January's Australian Open. The 20-time grand slam champion claimed he had an exemption due to having tested positive to Covid-19 in December, but the Serbian was denied entry.
What followed was an 11-day circus in which Immigration Minister Alex Hawke cancelled Djokovic's visa on the Friday before the start of the Australian Open.
The 34-year-old ultimately did not take part in the Melbourne-based grand slam tournament, where rival Rafael Nadal secured his 21st major title.
Novak Djokovic during a training session in Melbourne before getting deported. Photo / Photosport
Djokovic finally broke his silence in a BBC interview this week, claiming that if his involvement in future tournaments was contingent on being vaccinated, then "that is the price I'm willing to pay".
"I understand and support fully the freedom to choose whether you want to get vaccinated or not," he said. "I have not spoken about this before and I have not disclosed my medical record and my vaccination status because I had the right to keep that private and discrete. But as I see, there is a lot of wrong conclusions and assumptions out there and I think it's important to speak up about that and justify certain things.
"I was never against vaccination. I understand globally, everyone is trying to put a big effort into handling this virus and seeing an end soon hopefully to this virus. And vaccination was probably the biggest effort that was made, probably half of the planet was vaccinated. And I fully respect that.
"But I've always supported the freedom to choose what you put in your body. For me, that is essential. It is really the principle of understanding what is right and what is wrong for you, and me as an elite professional athlete, I have always carefully reviewed, assessed everything that comes in, from supplements, food, the water that I drink, sports drinks, anything that comes into my body as fuel. Based on all the information I got, I decided not to take the vaccine as of today.
"The principles of decision making on my body are more important than any title or anything else. I'm trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can."
Inevitably, Djokovic's remarks did not sit well with large portions of the tennis community, who blasted his controversial views as "wildly anti-scientific".
The tennis superstar's claim that he is not anti-vax also raised plenty of eyebrows.
Djokovic really said I'm not anti-vax I'm just against vaccines.
Hard to take the claim that he's not anti-vax seriously when he also says he's willing to sacrifice his career not to get the vaccine. #Tennis#Djokovic
During the BBC interview, Djokovic also bizarrely said: "No one in that entire process of the Australian saga has asked me on my stance or my opinion on vaccination. No one. So I could not really express what I feel and where my stance is, neither in the legal process, neither outside.
"It's really unfortunate that there has been this misconceptions and wrong conclusion made around the world based on something I completely disagree with."
Djokovic seems to have forgotten that not once did he organise a press conference during the Australian visa saga.
He also seems oblivious to the fact he has nine million Twitter followers and 10.3 million Instagram followers.
And more importantly, the French journalist who interviewed Djokovic in December without knowing he had tested positive for Covid-19 was told specifically not to ask him about his vaccination status for the virus.
Ramella wrote last month: "The instructions were clear — no questions about vaccination.
"So we didn't ask him if he had made efforts to get tested. If we had asked him, what would have been the point?"
Djokovic's blatant hypocrisy did not go unnoticed.
Lots to digest from the Djokovic interview.
But one thing - he says he didn’t have chance to distance himself from the anti-vaxx movement during Australia ‘because no-one asked me for my stance and opinion on vaccination.
When asked about his experiences in Australia, Djokovic replied: "I was really sad and disappointed with the way it all ended for me in Australia.
"It wasn't easy.
"The visa declaration error was not deliberately made.
"It was accepted and confirmed by the Federal Court and the Minister himself in the Ministry for Immigration in Australia.
"So actually, what people probably don't know is that I was not deported from Australia on the basis that I was not vaccinated, or I broke any rules or that I made an error in my visa declaration.
"All of that was actually approved and validated by the Federal Court of Australia and the Minister Immigration.
"The reason why I was deported from Australia was because the Minister Immigration used his discretion to cancel my visa based on his perception that I might create some anti-vax sentiment in the country or in the city, which I completely disagree with."
Currently, Djokovic's next scheduled tournament is at Indian Wells, which is a vaccinated-only event set to start on March 20.
