“Everything got out of hand and then I was labelled as this or that. It was so big in the media that I just could not fight that, I didn’t even want to get into that. I obviously wanted to stay here and play tennis, but at some point with the amount of craziness going around, I just wanted to get out and go back home."
The saga around Djokovic lasted for almost a fortnight before he was finally deported. To the irritation of his peers, his hotly contested case became a far bigger deal than the Australian Open itself.
In the end, though, the tournament recovered its hold over the wider tennis narrative. A magnificent finals weekend – which featured Rafael Nadal’s stunning comeback victory and Ashleigh Barty’s first grand-slam title on home soil – meant that the show went on without him.
Djokovic’s own wounds needed considerably longer to heal. As he told Channel Nine: "I stayed for several weeks at home, didn’t really go around too much. I just hoped that the situation would calm down, which it did, but the traces stayed there.
“The traces followed for several months after and I didn’t know if it was going to affect my game and the way I play. It was not easy for me mentally to regroup and restart again. In every press conference I was asked at least one or two questions about Australia and what happened. Even if I wanted to move on, people were reminding me of that.
"It’s still unfortunate and it hurts me that most of the people will have a wrong idea about what happened. The media has picked on me big time for several months and not in a positive note, so that has created a lot of disturbance to my brand and to me personally and people around me.”
Australian Open injury scare for Djokovic
Djokovic’s self-justification does rather gloss over the fact that he chose to avoid vaccination when almost every other player had made themselves available for the jab. As he told the BBC in the aftermath of the deportation storm, missing major tournaments because of his medical philosophy was “the price that I’m willing to pay”.
It was perhaps fortunate for Djokovic that the Liberal government was voted out of office by the Australian public in May. Anthony Albanese’s Labor took over, and Hawke’s successor as immigration minister – Andrew Giles – cancelled Djokovic’s three-year visa ban (a sentence which is automatically handed out to anyone who suffers deportation from Australia).
Giles’s decision – which was officially announced in November – at once made Djokovic the runaway favourite to land an unprecedented 10th title on Rod Laver Arena. His results since last spring – 40 wins and only four losses – suggest that he is playing some of the best tennis of his life.
Admittedly, Djokovic caused his ardent fans some concern on Wednesday. He suspended his practice match against Daniil Medvedev after one set – which he lost 6-3 – having had the trainer out three times to look at his left knee.
Still, the fact that Djokovic played four more games (losing all of them) after the initial assessment suggests that this was a minor niggle rather than anything to be concerned about. Had he inflicted any significant damage on the joint, he would surely have left the court at once. As it is, we can expect him back on Rod Laver Arena on Friday for another practice match – this one a reprise of last summer’s Wimbledon final against Australian rabble-rouser Nick Kyrgios.
