Damian Reilly Damian Reilly

In praise of Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic in action Down Under (Getty images)

Like you, I am hugely enjoying the Novak Djokovic drama Down Under. What’s not to like? It is extremely funny. Quite possibly the world’s healthiest man has been deemed a danger to public health in a nation where two thirds of adults are overweight or obese by a government that has, at various points over the last two years, done a more than passable impression of having gone completely nuts.

Even during the worst stages of the pandemic here in the UK, I have often given silent thanks that I do not live in Australia, which as the months have slowly ticked by has increasingly revealed a authoritarian zealousness matched only by China and other tyrannical regimes.

At first I thought the keenness for staying at home – Melbourne, where Djokovic still might defend his Australian Open title, has endured 262 days in lockdown – was the result of base laziness and a widely shared desire for more barbecue time.

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