With Russia playing a deadly cat-and-mouse game with Ukraine, this week the world number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic, must have thought we needed a distraction.
Following his charm offensive with the BBC’s Amol Rajan earlier this week, Djokovic has announced that he would like to play the Australian Open again, despite the minor complication of his having been banned from entering Australia for three years, following his deportation last month.
Djokovic told Serbia’s national TV, ‘I want to come back to Australia in the future and to play on Rod Laver Arena again… A lot of professional and personal beautiful things happened to me there. Despite all this, I have a great connection with Australia.’
Djokovic indeed has a great connection with Australia – after all, Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena is his Grand Slam happiest hunting ground.
Djokovic deserves respect for declaring he’ll put his principles ahead of his career. He is also, however, being realistic
But as he told Rajan, he remains unvaccinated and has no intention of changing that.
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