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!

Yes I also think he's a formidable player. But I don't know what that has to do with the current situation. Unless you're implying that him being a formidable player should give him extra rights and privileges?

No. I was replying to someone who joked I must be his mum because I said the other tennis players would probably be quite happy to have him leave the tournament. My point was that his incredible ability is not something just fond maternal eyes could detect.

He is formidable and no player would spurn the undoubted advantage his disqualification / elimination would provide.

Don’t care how good a player he is or how much Australians apparently hate people from the balkans (like they’re some homogeneous species, I’d like to hear from someone from another part of the regions about how much Serbs are apparently this discriminated minority … ) he could be the frigging Pope but his agent has falsified his visa and he’s broken covid isolation rules of his country and put other people at risk of life and limb. Funny how you could be called a literal murderer on here for daring to go out for two daily walks back in April 2020 (‘you might breathe near someone! Twice!’) lockdown but because people are a fan of this guy and think Australia are being ‘mean’ it’s ok?

He's been World #1 for something like six or seven years running. Fairly sure not only his mum thinks he's a formidable player.

Completely irrelevant but I don't recall him having to deal with the same kind of injuries that Federer/Nadal have had which has certainly made it easier for him to retain #1. He's certainly an excellent players but I think part of his game is to intimidate and essentially cheat his opponents (medical timeouts etc). That along with a lot of his behaviour is why he was unpopular before covid even struck.

But covid has certainly been another opportunity for him to remind us what an arrogant arse he is.

So so far behind his peers in terms of class and popularity.

It’s ironic really.

If he’d just left rather than fight deportation it would never have emerged that he’d lied on his visa application and that he’d broken the law in Serbia. He would have just gone back home and that would have been that.

Now as things stand he faces the possibility of being deported from Australia and unable to return for another 3 years, back to Serbia where he broke the law and where he may well be held to account for that.

So all in all he’s shot himself in the foot somewhat.

@PlanktonsComputerWife

I know you enjoy just glossing over the actual issue at hand, but as it's now been confirmed I'll ask you once again

Would you care to make a comment on the fact the Djokovic knowingly mixed with others while covid positive and lied on his immigration forms, or would you prefer to just keep ignoring that and pretending he's the victim?

@AlternativePerspective

It’s ironic really.

If he’d just left rather than fight deportation it would never have emerged that he’d lied on his visa application and that he’d broken the law in Serbia. He would have just gone back home and that would have been that.

Now as things stand he faces the possibility of being deported from Australia and unable to return for another 3 years, back to Serbia where he broke the law and where he may well be held to account for that.

So all in all he’s shot himself in the foot somewhat.

Yep. And probably made himself a whole lot more unpopular in the process 😁 he won't like that on court.

No. I was replying to someone who joked I must be his mum because I said the other tennis players would probably be quite happy to have him leave the tournament. My point was that his incredible ability is not something just fond maternal eyes could detect.

He is formidable and no player would spurn the undoubted advantage his disqualification / elimination would provide.

And? I'm sure that if he couldn't play due to injury some players would think it boosted their chances of winning. Equally some would be disappointed that he wasn't there because they want to play against the best. I would imagine pretty much all would have sympathy for him.

But Djokovic has brought this upon himself and has tried to circumvent the rules that other players have followed and in the process has made Tennis Australia a laughing stock. So I'm guessing other players still feel the range of views I've mentioned above minus the sympathy. I think if he plays in the AO he's damaging the reputation of international tennis.

I don’t think he’ll go back to Serbia
He’ll be off somewhere that will have him, a sunny island nation or the like
Where he will become some sort of hero for the covid deniers of the world

Now more than ever I strongly believe his positive Covid test was faked/fixed. He didn't get Covid.

Think about it, the only reason he even got into Australia was because of this sudden last minute covid diagnosis that occurred 6 days after the deadline to apply for an exemption (but no worries, the Australian tennis federation fixed that for him). It would interesting to learn how long ago his team reserved the luxury home with it's own tennis court in Melbourne that he's staying in, afterall he couldn't have hoped to get into Australia until that last minute Covid case... it's not like anyone can predict getting Covid...

He is the world no.1 and he is chasing history to win more grand slams to overtake Federer and Nadal. There's no way he wanted to skip the Australian Open and of course he's been training for it. The only obstacle he faced was how to get into Australia being unvaccinated.

How unbelievably lucky for him to catch an asymptomatic case of Covid at the 11th hour... And by unbelievably I really mean unbelievable.

I don’t think he’ll go back to Serbia
He’ll be off somewhere that will have him, a sunny island nation or the like

Doesn't he live in Monte Carlo anyway?

How unbelievably lucky for him to catch an asymptomatic case of Covid at the 11th hour... And by unbelievably I really mean unbelievable.

...and that he apparently had no ill effects at all from the conveniently timed infection. Marvellous.
Surely most players would be doing everything they could to prevent or avoid colds or minor ailments a few weeks before a major tournament?

Now more than ever I strongly believe his positive Covid test was faked/fixed. He didn't get Covid.

Yes I'm starting to believe that (as opposed to him being positive and being a covid spreader). I wish Tennis Australia would be absolutely clear about when they received his application for exemption because if it was before he (supposedly) tested positive on the 16th Dec that would prove once and for all that he cheated.

Yes I agree, we need clarity on the exemption application. This is not going to just go away.

I feel sympathy for all the other players here (not the top few, the lower seeds). This whole tournament seems to be about politics now, not tennis. Plus this 'will he, won't he' situation can't be helping their preparation if they are due to meet him...

I agree. It's just so convenient he got Covid when he did. And the article I think on this thread, that calls into doubt the whole thing. Someone has looked into the QR codes of the time the test taken and the result, and they just don't hang together at all.
Basically, it appears the positive QR code comes before the QR code of the test time taken.

There are too many grey areas and questions and the trouble is, when someone starts to fudge facts, you start disbelieving everything they say.

Martina Navratilova has hinted at being suspicious of the timing of his Covid diagnosis. People aren't idiots, especially the other players.

It seems a lot of information on his application is questionable. In the Times it was written:

"The German news website Der Spiegel reported that digital data for Djokovic’s positive PCR Covid-19 test result — on which he has relied as evidence for his exemption — is dated December 26. Djokovic’s documentation for entry had claimed it was December 16. It also claimed that a negative test was quickly followed by a positive one.

Der Spiegel said: “The test results also include QR codes, and when Der Spiegel scanned the QR code for the test from Dec. 16, things got strange. At 1:19 p.m. on Monday (CET), the result from the scan was ‘test result Negative.’ Such a result would have destroyed Djokovic’s case for being allowed into the country. About an hour later, though, at 2:33 p.m. on Monday, a second scan of the QR code returned a different result: ‘Test result Positive.’ ”

I'd already read about the dodgy QR scan issue but I didn't previously know that the PCR test he relied on is dated Dec 26th and not Dec 16th when he claims he tested positive. It's all looking very messy for him now.

More and more people are questioning if he lied about getting Covid. Which makes his mea culpa about not quarantining look even sillier.

But if he was relying on a positive test from 26th Dec, wouldn't 14 days isolation end on about the 9th of January? But he flew into Oz on the 4th?

This is getting ridiculous now. No wonder his brother abruptly adjourned the press conference. Presumably that was to give Djokovic time to assess what looked worse, being a covid spreader or a cheat. And Djokovic has clearly decided that being considered a cheat is worse and would stop him having the chance of winning the AO.

Hasn't there also been confusion about exactly when he got his result back because he knows that potentially knowingly giving covid to a load of kids is a VERY bad look whereas just giving it to a journalist isn't quite as bad ?

Yes, he is not saying when he got the result back. His fans are saying he might not have heard for days. Bollocks. He's the top or one of the top, athletes in the world with medical experts at his fingertips, there is no way he won't have been told the minute the Lab knew.

Nice try by the fans though!

If Australia don’t deport him now there will be outcry.

The Sydney Morning Herald has this article: it's very detailed about the various discrepancies in the information that ND submitted. Looks like the immigration authorities are also now delving into whether he manipulated his covid tests.

www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/immigration-officials-investigating-djokovic-s-errors-and-covid-breaches-20220112-p59nrb.html

This is just not going away and everytime he tries to explain something away it just creates more inconsistencies for people to examine. Yesterday I was sure he was going to stay in Australia but honestly his story is falling apart so badly that it's going to be difficult for the immigration authority to defend not ordering him to leave.

Option 1. ND hangs out with Covid positive people to purposely infect himself in order to get an medical exemption to allow him get into Australia. 4 weeks before he has to be in absolute peak physical condition.

Option 2. Fakes a positive Covid test with the help of his ‘support team’. Plus fakes an antibody test. It would admittedly be extremely easy to do if your ‘support team’ are happy to play along.

I’m going with 2. Don’t know if it could ever get proved though.

I'm not remotely into tennis. I know a bellend when I see one though.

I work in admin, and we have two individuals in my workplace who I'm reminded of when reading this story:

-refusal to comply with the rules, believing themselves to be too important for them to apply
-disbelief when reminded that the rules do indeed apply to them
-repeatedly having to be asked to provide basic, routine info
-time-wasting arguing about basic, routine info
-no sense of shame when caught out in blatant untruths (eg on an expense claim)
-insistence that they are so valuable to the department it doesn't matter what they do anyway

Happily one of these people had their funding halted by a major sponsor over their attitude, which is now massively impacting their career.

I always thought Australians had low tolerance for bellends?

esterday I was sure he was going to stay in Australia but honestly his story is falling apart so badly that it's going to be difficult for the immigration authority to defend not ordering him to leave

I agree.

Why didn't he isolate in Serbia when he did hear he was positive?
Why did he just carry on as normal? Why didn't he quarantine after he'd done the PCR and before he had the result?
How did he forget he'd visited two countries in the 14 days before ?