EDMUND WILLISON: Djokovic chose his own way years ago … and the Aussie dispute is its culmination

Novak Djokovic still has questions to answer about the well-timed Covid-19 scene last month, which allowed him to claim he was exempt from Australian immigration rules banning unvaccinated foreigners from visiting the country.

It remains to be seen whether he will be able to play in the Australian Open or win it and become statistically the best player in the history of men’s Grand Slam tennis. But the scandal of the last two weeks is just the latest chapter in a life of ideological resistance that is not disturbed by objective truth.

This is an unvaccinated man who was criticized for not getting his stings – presumably believing they were harmful – to have a round of vaccinations for others at the Serbian Open.

Novak Djokovic still has questions about his vaccination status in the midst of this Covid crisis

This is a self-proclaimed humanitarian portrayed last year in socializing with Milan Jolovic, a former commander of the infamous Drina Wolves paramilitary unit involved in the Bosnian genocide during the Bosnian war. Djokovic’s PR team says Djokovic has no idea who Jolovic was.

This is a top athlete who believes that the molecular composition of water can be changed with positive thoughts. Presumably, he believes the 785 million people who don’t have clean water, according to the World Health Organization, just don’t think hard enough.

This is a Serbian superstar who mingled indoors with several others while carrying Covid. Even Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, one of her most loyal supporters, after hearing her admit this, said there had been a “clear” breach of Serbian Covid rules, which is now under investigation.

But despite all the quirks of Djokovic, we know that science, or at least his definition, has fundamentally changed the course of his career.

Djokovic has to wait nervously to defend his Australian Open

This is a man whose dietary revolutions have supported 19 of his 20 Grand Slam scents so far.

In 2010, Djokovic looked for ways to overcome the exhaustion he felt every year in the midday sun at the Australian Open. He solved these problems with the help of Igor Cetojevic, a Cypriot doctor who specializes in alternative medicine. By holding the bread against Djokovic’s stomach, Cetojevic was able to diagnose Djokovic’s gluten intolerance, which caused him considerable fatigue. This was followed by weight loss and his now legendary fitness.

Yet for men in a weaker moral position, Djokovic refuses to believe that they could go on a darker path in the pursuit of honor.

When asked about the prevalence of doping in tennis, he replied at the 2016 Laureus Sports Awards gala: “The media is trying to create stories and so on. As long as there is no evidence that anyone is using doping, the sport is pure.

According to tennis coach Gnter Bresnik, Djokovic is known to be careful about the details.

The number one in the world has chosen not to give up Australia’s open opportunities without a fight

“The way Novak Djokovic defines and executes his work is the most professional. It includes all aspects, physical, playful, tactical, medical and mental care,” he said.

It’s a surprise then that Djokovic didn’t know in 2016 that Bresnik, the man who introduced him to his loyal former physical coach Gebhard Gritsch, had already gotten his own player Stefan Koubek positive for a drug test.

Or that his compatriots Viktor Troicki and Dejan Katic were banned from sporting for doping violations. Troicki refused a drug test in 2013, while Katic caught on to stimulants.

Or that Marin Cilic, a resident of her friend and comrade Monte Carlo, inadvertently tested positive for another stimulant, niketamide, which Adolf Hitler regularly used to wake up from a drug-induced stupor.

But after Djokovic’s 2016 comments, doping has hit closer to home.

Recently, former Slovak Dominik Hrbaty – like Djokovic coached by Marian Vajda during his career – became embroiled in a doping scandal.

Djokovic’s visa was revoked again on Friday and he spends the weekend in a detention center

In 2017, Hrbaty, one of his Davis Cup teammates suffering from a doping ban, began coaching Dylan Scott, an unpunished American player. Shortly thereafter, Scott gave a positive steroid test after Hrbacy’s extensive strength and rehabilitation program.

‘[Hrbaty told me] I had to improve … my fitness, my endurance and, you know, just being able to stay on the field, … to survive these matches, “Scott said at the doping control procedure. One of Scott’s 21 supplements was called the” Concentrated Bulgarian Species Natural Testosterone Booster. ” year’s ban because he did not convince the panel that he had not intended to cheat.

The guilt of association is not this, Djokovic’s apparent liming of tennis doping in 2016 once again shows how often his own reality collides with the mainstream.

While he may need an almost universal love that greets his rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at stadiums around the world, Djokovic is his own man. And he should be praised for that. The political correctness of his two main rivals is sometimes nauseating, but ultimately their popularity has been allowed to flourish.

Djokovic or his public relations team decided to follow his own path many years ago. The events of the last two weeks in Australia – ending with Serbia losing its appeal to stay in the country on Sunday – are its culmination.