Australian Open 2022: Booting out Novak Djokovic is pure karma

We know too that there is little that will trigger the ire of a population who have been following the rules of a pandemic like knowing that certain special cases have been empowered to duck them. Thus, when the world No 1 tennis player was stopped and held in Melbourne airport yesterday, and then told to return home, it seemed that maybe this was the moment for which the word “karma” had been invented.

Novak Djokovic is arguably the world’s most famous anti-vaxxer.

We know that professional athletes can disappear down wormholes of mis-information and never re-emerge; Djokovic is the most celebrated of the lot of them. He therefore becomes a standard-bearer and a rallying point for those of like-minded views. His flight to Melbourne thus became a parable for our times. His about-turn when he got there may be more widely celebrated than any of his 20 grand slams.

Melbourne is a city that has suffered six lockdowns. You will not be able to get in to watch the Australian Open, in two weeks’ time, without having had two vaccinations. It was therefore unlikely to be well received when Djokovic announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he had been given permission to play in the tournament exempt from having to be vaccinated.

“Let’s go 2022!” was his sign-off on his post. Yes, that probably got under a few skins too.

We do not actually know why Djokovic was given the exemption. What we do know for sure is the storm of outrage that his announcement whipped up. It was Dominic Cummings in Barnard Castle and Downing Street parties with new balls, please.

Indignant Australians asked loudly why this was permitted yet they had not been allowed to cross state borders within the country to see family or attend funerals. And they did so with an answer fast crystallising in their minds: because they weren’t the No 1 drawcard for the Australian Open. They didn’t represent viewer interest, TV eyeballs, highlights downloads, data capture, sponsor interest. They felt that it was another rule for the tennis player who did. Here was Covid being manipulated on the altar of commercial interest.

Yet Djokovic’s story comes with deep political interest too. It is not in a politician’s interest to be seen to give the nod to a high-profile Covid exemption and when a nation’s future hangs on the success of a vaccination programme, it is certainly not in the political interest to be backing the world’s best-known anti-vaxxer.

This all kicked in during the 14 hours when Djokovic was mid-air from Dubai to Melbourne. “Let’s go 2022,” Djokovic’s post read; indeed, to Melbourne airport but no further because by then, Scott Morrison, the prime minister, had decided to have his say. He was not alone. The home minister and sundry other politicos joined in too.

By the time Djokovic had got to immigration, they had managed to identify a fault in his visa application. At this point in the tug of war over the world No 1, political interest was beating commercial and there will have been vast numbers, all round the globe, who would have been punching the air in triumph. And probably laughing too.

Sport, like so much of society, has striven to respect the rights of athletes on whether or not they wish to be vaccinated against Covid-19. What is becoming abundantly clear is that it is then extraordinarily hard to keep the show on the road.

In the major sports leagues in the United States, increased pressure has been placed on athletes without actually making vaccination mandatory. Professional football in England is much more liberal and the direct consequence is the plethora of postponed fixtures.

Yet, when they take a liberal line — or, rather, when they are forced to — leaders in sport are not only damaging their ability to run their businesses, they are publicly entertaining the debate about the Covid vaccination and whether it is permissible to skip it.

That is why Djokovic’s Twitter post on Tuesday was so dangerous: the gloating tone that he had managed to work the system and the accompanying message that here was a success for an anti-vaxxer. Let’s go 2022!

By being permitted to play in the Australian Open, Djokovic gives oxygen to the view that it is OK to skip vaccination. By turning him around at Melbourne airport, the opposite view prevails.

The organisers of the Australian Open humiliated themselves by giving Djokovic the royal welcome and ushering him through the back door into the event. Their blushes were saved by the politicians succeeding in stopping him from getting there.