Comment on Novak Djokovic: Nobody needs a number one like that

by Alexander Haubrichs (oh)

–


–

So now the drama is over and Novak Djokovic has to leave Australia! It was the predictable and only correct decision that the court Down Under could make. Because apart from all procedural questions: The Serb may still be such an exceptional athlete and tennis giant – but nobody really needs such a number 1, neither at the Australian Open nor anywhere else.

And not just because of his attitude towards Corona. But that’s when it became clear what sets the Swiss gentleman Roger Federer or the Spanish bull Rafael Nadal apart from the “Djoker”: attitude and size, especially in social issues.

Novak Djokovic among Corona deniers and ultra-nationalists

Djokovic had already shown on the Adria Tour in summer 2020 what he thinks of the rules and the fight against Corona: When in doubt, nothing at all and of course he also gave grist to the mills of deniers and skeptics.

With his proximity to ultra-right nationalists, pseudo-historians and deniers of the genocide in the Balkan war in the 90s, the Serb has not only been a more than questionable figure in the tennis elite since the pandemic. Off the tennis court, he seems lost in a world of swaggerers and conspiracy theorists.

Novak Djokovic behaved irresponsibly

The fact that he survived his first corona infection without major consequences seems to have made him completely carefree. That may be his personal right, just like the fact that he doesn’t get vaccinated.