Who is being U, Australia or Novak Djokovic?

[inheritancetrack]

Me, I'm in the you can't have your cake and eat it Novak, camp!

What Fafa Nadal said seems pretty reasonable. I hope someone calls off the hounds.

It's going to be interesting when ND plays, to see and hear the crowd's reactions to him after all this. Tennis crowds can be very partisan if the 'neutrals' take a side.

@FannyCann

Well I've just been having a look on twitter and frankly it's ugly. Djokovic fans seem to be trolling Nadal and there's a lot of spite being aimed at him. I really admire NADAL, I've always been a fan, he is always polite and compassionate. He made an excellent, measured statement, no blame, no lectures, pointing out how much people around the world and in Australia have suffered and supporting vaccinations, without any condemnation. I hope he wins.

Rafa is lovely

Fantastic tennis player and a very classy guy.

Rafa fgs.

Correcting myself there ^^

I love Rafa, always have done.

He's sooooo cool

@FannyCann

I think Rafael has been very diplomatic but that sort of questioning is basically set up to entice another player to say they think Djokovic is being an idiot or behaving like a dick. They may well think he is (on this occassion - or maybe they don't have an opinion one way or the other) they're not going to badmouth their friends or training partners.(or even fellow players who they'll end up in tournaments with throughout the year) It's basically the media shit shirring hoping to create a different level of rivalry off the court.

I'm still shocked at the outcome I really thought they'd make an example of him.

Has he been seen yet?

Australia. They make the rules. They said there was a medical exemption for people who’d been recently infected with covid. He applied for a preliminary visa and got it. Then the government said that exemption only applies to Australians, not foreigners. Did the immigration department not think that maybe this is the kind of immigration information that it’s a good idea to put on the immigration website in massive capital letters??

He’s being used as a political football. I’m not interested in tennis, but watching all the self-righteous nasty politics around this - and an innocent man losing his liberty for days for no reason and benefittong nobody - has felt sinister. Some media outlets have even said he’s a danger to those around him - wtf, someone who’s recently had covid has WAY more and way better antibodies to covid than I got from my (months old) vaccines.

Poor guy.

Poor world. We deserve better leaders than we have.

Definitely team Aus. Innocent man loosing his liberty bollocks! He could have gone back home anytime.

@JazzyBBG

I'm still shocked at the outcome I really thought they'd make an example of him.

Has he been seen yet?

They can't just make an example of him. They have to follow their own laws - stupid procedural slip up resulted in the consent order - embarrassing slip up by the Aus government.

I always thought he'd be given an exemption in the end. But we needed some theatre first to mollify the little people who must show their vaccine certificates to go to the library, supermarket etc.

Sky have reported this morning that there are questions about the answers on his immigration form.

He said he had not travelled in the 14 days prior to arrival in Melbourne. It's very simple. A yes or a no.

He was in Belgrade on 25th December with a Benfica handball player.

He was in Sotogrande Spain playing tennis and was pictured on 31st December.

Here are the pictures and details.

How in god's name can he stay? If he does, it makes a mockery of these immigration forms. Lie... and it doesn't matter.

I don't know how true it is as I haven't seen the document, but reports are saying he said on his visa application he hadn't travelled outside his country in 14 days but has actually gone to Spain. As he seems to have posted on sm that he was in Spain, if he did say he hadn't travelled outside his country for 14 days, he lied on the visa application.

Everything about this entire situation is so murky now. I wish ND would draw a line under it by withdrawing. If he plays in AO, I feel sorry for his opponents, particularly the early rounds as they will be low ranked players, possibly 1st time Grand Slam entrants. There's going to be so much focus on the matches, and not for the tennis. It all adds to the pressure.

He trained on centre court today.

If he's got an ounce of moral fibre and decency he'll withdraw from the tournament as the events surrounding his visa are overshadowing the Open.

I don't think he will though. He's anti vax who knows better than all the respected scientific minds and a big, wealthy tennis player from a little country flexing his muscles and standing up to the might of Oz - the rules for the little people don't apply to him. He's probably also enjoying unsettling the other players.

@tttIgress Geographically they are central Europe. At least Poland and Czechia is. If you look on the map, Czechia is nearly in an identical position to Austria, which you wouldn't call eastern Europe. Sweden and Finland goes further east than all three but you wouldn't call them eastern Europe.
The term is political really. Its based on the ex Soviet block of countries and there are associated taboos with that which is why 'they' get annoyed at it.
Its associated with poor post communist countries and to describe those three as eastern Europe is geographically incorrect. Those two words are never/very rarely used in a positive sentence for the average 'eastern european'.

I'm amazed that they aren't using the ministerial powers of discretion to kick him out. He got off on a technicality and there are a string of issues reported about his application which suggest he has not been entirely honest. A normal person would have already been on the plane home, their feet probably wouldn't have even touched the ground from the courthouse steps.

The only thing I can think of is that the Aus Gov are hoping that by allowing him to play the fury will be focussed on him rather than them. Risky strategy.

He doesn't come across as a very humble guy I must agree and neither does his family.
Its a bit of a mess but I'm not sure he should he withdrawing. I don't particularly agree with the message he's sending but at the same time, Australia put those exemptions in place, clearly didn't communicate the resident bit very well because he got a visa and all the rest of it. It was only after an outcry that problems arose.
He got in within their rules. Why should he withdraw? I think this is one of those things that is really easy to say now because it's him and he's an asshole that thinks hes a god. But i do think it's shone a light on how badly people get treated in immigration. Even the transcript is horrible to read. Many on immigration forums are quite happy this has happened as it's really shown the realities of it.

Everything about this entire situation is so murky now. I wish ND would draw a line under it by withdrawing. If he plays in AO, I feel sorry for his opponents, particularly the early rounds as they will be low ranked players, possibly 1st time Grand Slam entrants. There's going to be so much focus on the matches, and not for the tennis. It all adds to the pressure.

I was worried about this. I'm sort of curious about the crowd reaction and will probably watch to see what sort of reception he gets. (DH usually watches every sport known to mankind the AO so it will be on in our house anyway) DH thinks that all the hype and drama will, in some way, fuel Djokovic and make him play better, and that he will win again. I think he'll get an enormous reaction from the crowd and will be the sort of thing the umpire has to pause play for the sake of both players. Djokovic is used to not being the favourite anyway if playing against an underdog and against Federer or Nadal, so likely to affect his opponent just as much, if not more, especially as you say, if they are a much low ranked player or new to the Grand Slams.

Many on immigration forums are quite happy this has happened as it's really shown the realities of it.

I totally understand that point of view. People on here (rightly) spoke about how hard a few months of soft lockdown were on their mental health, yet there are young people who have spent a decade imprisoned in that hell hotel Djokovic was sent to, without being able to leave. It's actual torture. And disgusting in so many ways. New Zealand famously offered to take them and Australia refused.

Yet the average middle-class reaction on this thread is seal-clapping for the Australian government.

It's a huge fuck up all round. There is loads of evidence now that ND lied on his visa form. But the stupid immigration officers messed up hence the judge quashing the case. Everyone has come out of this looking bad. We know Australian immigration is awful, but we also know that ND seems to have some kind of God Complex.

I still think they should kick him out or that he should withdraw. Him playing now just seems untenable.

@Roussette

Sky have reported this morning that there are questions about the answers on his immigration form.

He said he had not travelled in the 14 days prior to arrival in Melbourne. It's very simple. A yes or a no.

He was in Belgrade on 25th December with a Benfica handball player.

He was in Sotogrande Spain playing tennis and was pictured on 31st December.

Here are the pictures and details.

How in god's name can he stay? If he does, it makes a mockery of these immigration forms. Lie... and it doesn't matter.

That article has a factual error. It lists the stamp receipt as 18th when it was 16th. On 17th he was at the kid tennis event and on 18th ND was being photographed by L'Equippe. 25th December there are various photos with different people that were all in Belgrade streets, so that's true. 31st December in Spain is new; if he'd travelled on 4th then it could all count as one trip, but it is too early. I wonder when he flew to Spain, and what he said about the covid positive test on his Schengen visa for entry to Spain.

@SirChenjins

If he's got an ounce of moral fibre and decency he'll withdraw from the tournament as the events surrounding his visa are overshadowing the Open.

I don't think he will though. He's anti vax who knows better than all the respected scientific minds and a big, wealthy tennis player from a little country flexing his muscles and standing up to the might of Oz - the rules for the little people don't apply to him. He's probably also enjoying unsettling the other players.

He is rich. He could have bought a Dr to say he was vaxxed. But he did follow the Aus rules. At the end of the day, ironically they failed to follow their own rules.

As for 'enjoying unsettling the other players'. What is this based on? I think your personal dislike of the man comes through here.

But he did follow the Aus rules.

The fuck he did.

He did not follow the vaccination or isolation rules - he's through on a legal technicality, nothing more. It's reassuring to note that even he wouldn't stoop so low as to purchase a Dr, but perhaps his lawyers advised him that to do that would have been disastrous for his career.

As I don't know the man I cannot dislike him personally. I can, however, have very little respect for his behaviour and have my own opinions of him - as I'm sure you do.