Australian Open 2023: The resurrection of Novak Djokovic in Australia 378 days later

LThe turns that life takes Novak Djokovic must think hours before jumping to the Rod Laver Arena to play his tenth final of the Australian Open.

Just 378 days ago this Sunday, the same tennis player who is competing for his twenty-second ‘Grand Slam’ title, which would allow him to tie Rafael Nadal’s all-time high, was leaving through the back door of Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport after being deported for second time.

And all for not having been vaccinated against the coronavirus although the Balkan had traveled with a medical exemption that Tennis Australia had guaranteed.

The first deportation had been on January 6, once he landed in the capital of Victoria and after his visa was withdrawn. The one who was Minister of Immigration, Alexander Hawke, considered him a bad example for anti-vaxxers

The tennis player was exposing himself to a three-year ban without entering Australia, which meant that he was probably never going to play the first big one again.

Nole’s professional horizon was full of dark clouds. He reappeared in Dubai at the end of February, but paid for the inactivity against the Czech Jiri Vesely and lost in the quarterfinals. The defeat had the aggravating factor that made him lose the ATP number one after 361 weeks of domination in favor of Daniil Medvedev.

Djokovic, without any intention of getting vaccinated, could not enter the United States throughout 2022. That made him miss the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, Miami, Montreal and Cincinnati, in addition to the US Open.

Meanwhile, Nadal, his great rival in the race to be the best in history, delved into the wound by being crowned for the fourteenth time in the land of Roland Garros.

Despite his obvious limp, he beat a Novak out of competition rhythm in the penultimate round and distanced him in two big ones: 22 to 20. Djokovic already seemed out of circulation.

As the great champion that he is, he turned the situation around at Wimbledon and in a final stretch of the season in which he won everything except the TMS in Paris-Bercy.

On November 15, he learned that the sanction against him in Australia was suspended. He will be able to play the ‘major’ of the antipodes again.

With a sequence of 36 victories in the last 37 games, he appears in the final of the Australian Open with Stefanos Tsitsipas. The town that whistled at him for not getting vaccinated a year ago now applauds his hegemony in the sport of racket.

Whatever happens at the Rod Laver Arena, Djokovic will continue to be unable to play in the United States, so he will miss Indian Wells and Miami again. I know I will be in Dubai from February 27 to March 4, a tournament that opened the doors for him in 2022 when many had closed the doors.