Rafael Nadal believes “justice has spoken” and “it is the fairest thing” for Novak Djokovic to play in the Australian Open, following the decision of a judge to overturn the cancellation of his visa on health grounds.
“Regardless of whether or not I agree on some things with Djokovic, without any doubt, justice has spoken,” Nadal told Spanish radio station Onda Cero on Monday. “They have said he has the right to play in the Australian Open and I really believe that is the fairest thing if the issue has been resolved, which seems to be the case.”
On a lighter note, the 35-year-old added: “On a personal level I would prefer that he doesn’t play.”
Nadal, who is tied on 20 grand slam titles with Djokovic and Roger Federer, added: “Selfishly speaking for our sport, the best players being on the court competing is much better than them being anywhere else.”
Australian women’s doubles champion Rennae Stubbs told Channel 10 that the entire saga doesn’t reflect well on the Australian government.
“I can’t really say it on the air, but it’s a ‘bleep show’,” Stubbs said. She added that the immigration minister “has to be really careful” as he weighs up whether to cancel Djokovic’s visa again.
“He does pose a threat to Novak of not being able to come back to Australia for that amount of time and that could really threaten his grand slam total going forward,” Stubbs said.
Djokovic’s former mentor Niki Pilic said: “This whole ordeal was unnecessary. He was given the green light by Tennis Australia and doctors to play in the tournament and that’s when politics came in. If they revoked his visa now, I believe it would reflect poorly on Australia.”
“Novak vs the world. We’ve seen that before. This is different. If he ends up defending his title and getting to 21 slams, it’ll be one of the greatest tennis stories ever told,” said India’s former tennis pro Somdev Dev Varman.
Pepper spray for fans
Chaos gripped Melbourne earlier in the day as news spread of the court verdict that Novak Djokovic was a free man, with his supporters thronging the streets and blocking traffic. At one point, his supporters crowded around a car that was seen leaving Djokovic’s lawyer’s office in Melbourne, believing it carried the tennis player, but it could not be independently confirmed whether he was in the car, a black Mercedes.
Police had to use pepper spray to disperse the crowd, who overwhelmed the crowd and chanted “Free Novak! Free Novak!”
Online intruders
Australia’s efforts to let the media and public watch Djokovic’s court appeal descended into farce as pranksters hijacked the Internet links to stream loud music and porn. Minutes before proceedings were due to begin, journalists clicked on a just-expired Microsoft Teams link supplied by the court, unaware that the court had replaced the link. Expecting to see proceedings in real time, they were instead confronted with pornographic images.
News Corp’s head of digital sport, Emily Benammar, observed wryly in a tweet: “Porn: the one thing this whole Djokovic saga had been missing.”
