Since the start of the 2023 edition of Roland-Garros, every other day, almost all eyes have converged on one player: Novak Djokovic. Nothing new under the sun that floods the aisles of the Porte d’Auteuil this year. Since the beginning of his career, the Serb has become used to being talked about as much for his sporting exploits on the court as for his actions off it. After the politico-sanitary controversy which tainted the Australian Open 2022, it is on the geopolitical ground that the world number 3 polarized the debates as soon as he entered the running in the Parisian Grand Slam.
“Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence,” registered the former boss of the circuit, whose father was born in Kosovo, after his victory against the American Aleksandar Kovacevic (6-3, 6-2, 7-6), Monday, May 29, on the traditional dedicated camera to the signatures of the players. A message « militant », “very political”judged Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, on France 2, at the time of an outbreak of violence in the north of the country pitting demonstrators from the Serbian minority against the NATO force stationed there.
When journalists reported to him the words of the sports minister on Wednesday evening after his victory in the second round against the Hungarian Marton Fucsovics (7-6, 6-0, 6-3), Djokovic opposed a laconic ” no comment “, while confirming his words, without repeating them, at a press conference:
– After all your adventures in recent years, you would have thought that you would want to experience a Grand Slam tournament without psychodrama. Could you enlighten us on the path of your thought, is there not a small voice in you which said to itself: is it really worth it? [d’inscrire ce message] considering how explosive the subject is?
“I don’t regret doing it. I know a lot of people disagree with me, but that’s the way it is. A Grand Slam without psychodrama, I don’t think it’s possible for me, I even think it motivates me.
Doctor Novak, Mister “Djoker”
Not content to play the arsonists, the Serb persists and signs, smirking. Regardless of whether he is criticized, denigrated, condemned or even expelled, Novak Djokovic is never as hungry racket in hand as in adversity. Between the need to be loved as much as his rivals Federer and Nadal which turns to obsession, and his repeated provocations, the character is difficult to grasp. Doctor Novak, Mister “Djoker”. “I don’t know if I will be punished. If I am fined, I will have no regrets,” he added on Monday, while insisting on being “against war, against violence, against all kinds of conflict”.
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