On Thursday, Novak Djokovic made his first “public appearance” since his ass was deported from Melbourne, Australia just twelve hours before the Australian Open began. Novak’s deportation was huge international news for two weeks, as Novak wrongly believed he could enter Oz unvaccinated (but with a hokey medical exemption). Novak said, as he left, that he would speak about what happened after the tournament was over. I imagine it was very hard for him to see Rafael Nadal win AO last Sunday, although Novak did send his congratulations to Rafa and Ash Barty. Anyway, on Thursday, Novak did an event with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, who is a huge Djoker fan. Vucic made threats against Australia during the controversy, and he was (I guess) trying to help out Djokovic:

Novak Djokovic described his detention and deportation from Australia that prevented him from defending his Australian Open title as an “unfortunate event” and thanked the Serbian president for his support. An 11-day saga over Djokovic’s entry visa ended with the Serb being deported for failing to meet Australia’s strict COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

The top-ranked tennis star met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday and described the events in Australia as “unexpected, to say the least.”

“I wanted to meet with you today because, primarily as a citizen of Serbia, I felt a great need to thank you for great support that you, as the president of Serbia, gave me, as well as all state institutions during the unfortunate events in Australia,” Djokovic said. “Although I was alone in detention, and faced with many problems and challenges, I wasn’t feeling lonely. I had huge support primarily from my family, all of the close people in my life, entire Serbian nation, many people with good intentions from the region and the world.”

He did not speak about details of the events in Australia, promising to give his “version” later.

Djokovic’s meeting with the increasingly autocratic Vucic drew criticism from some of his fans in the Balkan country, where he is generally considered an icon and a hero. The critics say Vucic used the event to boost his popularity ahead of general elections scheduled for April.

[From Tennis.com]

Novak is truly the only tennis player I know of who could turn “being unvaccinated” into a potential United Nations-level international incident, complete with threats from a strong-man despot-president. I suspect Novak will probably tell “his version” of events next week, in advance of his appearance at the Dubai Open (which starts on Valentine’s Day). Meanwhile, Novak’s biographer claims that the events of the past month have convinced Novak to get vaccinated:

Novak Djokovic’s biographer claims the Serbian will now get his Covid-19 vaccination because he had to sit and watch Rafael Nadal win a record 21st Grand Slam at the Australian Open. It appears that Nadal’s victory, combined with other tournaments enforcing stricter rules regarding vaccination, could have changed his mind.

His biographer Daniel Muksch appeared on Austrian TV channel ServusTV and said: ‘What you hear from his environment, I think he’s getting vaccinated. Maybe the final in Melbourne also contributed to that. Rafael Nadal’s 21 is driving him, no question.’

[From The Daily Mail]

You know what? I’ll take it. I don’t care why people are getting vaccinated, just as long as they get the motherf–king shots. If Novak will only get vaxxed because of his rivalry with Nadal and his need to hold the most Grand Slam titles, so be it. It’s so strange to me that Novak literally never considered that before, like last year, when Tennis Australia announced their vaccine mandate for tennis players. We’re months away from Roland Garros in Paris, and there’s still back-and-forth about whether vaccines will be mandatory for non-French players. I believe that at the end of the day, France will likely enforce a mandate and that will be a huge factor in Novak getting vaccinated too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.