Melbourne: Novak Djokovic's abrupt exit from the Australian Open gives new meaning to the term "unforced error."
Just to be clear, Djokovic could have steered clear of the entire mess by getting vaccinated like Rafa Nadal, his greatest rival, and just about all the other players, officials, staff members and even fans who set foot inside Melbourne Park when the tournament begins Jan. 17.
Or like the "handful" of other players that Australian Open director Craig Tiley acknowledged were also granted exemptions, he could have simply shown up, shut up and kept his fingers crossed hoping that nobody noticed.
Instead, just before his flight from Dubai to Australia, Djokovic bragged about it on Twitter.
"I've spent fantastic quality time with loved ones over break & today I'm heading Down Under with an exemption permission," Djokovic wrote.
"Let's go 2022." Not so fast.
Djokovic is almost unbeatable at tennis, but politics is a whole other game. By the time he landed at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport, a nation that endured months-long lockdowns and kept its border closed until recently was spitting mad. Suddenly, his exemption wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.
"The rule is very clear," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday.
"You need to have a medical exemption. He didn't have a valid medical exemption. We make the call at the border, and that's where it's enforced."
That explained how Djokovic wound up cooling his heels at the airport overnight.
Apparently, the quality and variety of the concession stands there were not to his liking since Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic who spoke with Djokovic at one point went on Instagram and demanded "the harassment of the best tennis player in the world be stopped in the shortest possible time."
The Melbourne newspaper The Age quoted sources claiming that Djokovic sought an exemption because he'd contracted COVID-19 in the previous six months. If true, the court case won't stretch on for long.
"If that evidence is insufficient," Morrison said, "then he won't be treated any different to anyone else, and he'll be on the next plane home."
"I think if he wanted," Nadal said when asked about Djokovic, "he would be playing here in Australia without a problem. Everybody is free to take their own decisions, but then there are some consequences. In some way, I feel sorry for him. But at the same time, he knew the conditions since a lot of months ago."