DJOKOVIC. In an interview with the Team, Novak Djokovic clarified his position on vaccination against Covid-19 while explaining the link he has with his body.
[Mis à jour le 24 février à 10h30] After speaking on February 15 to the BBC where he clarified his position on vaccination against Covid-19, Novak Djokovic confided this Thursday February 24 to our colleagues from the team. Not vaccinated for the moment, the Serb could not defend his title at Roland-Garros even if he remains open to an evolution of his position: “Right now I don’t feel like I need it (the vaccine) to protect my body and I don’t feel like I’m a threat to others. That’s my position and, for the rest, my mind is completely open. Anything is possible.”
In the rest of the interview with the sports daily, Novak Djokovic revealed his link with his body: “Yes, I have an open mind, but I also have to maintain my integrity and autonomy. Because no one on this Earth knows my body better than I do. I want to be the sole owner of my body.” By May 22 and the start of Roland-Garros, positions may change, both that of Novak Djokovic and that of the Ministry of Sports on the vaccination obligation for foreign athletes.
More than two months after his last official match in the Davis Cup, the world number 1 made his return to competition in Dubai on Monday February 21, beating Italian Lorenzo Musetti and Karen Khachanov on Wednesday February 23. “Nole” will face the Czech Jiri Vesely this Thursday in the quarter-finals.
While his vaccination status had never been officially revealed to the general public, the affair which shook the Serb in Australia highlighted his non-vaccination against Covid-19. The world tennis star is indeed not vaccinated against the coronavirus and was able to travel to Australia due to a positive test on December 16 which may exempt him from vaccination.
It all started on January 5 when the Serb arrived on Australian soil following a medical exemption which allowed him not to be vaccinated. But at the airport, the world number 1 is arrested by the border police who refuse him entry into the territory, believing that he does not sufficiently justify his medical exemption. His visa is then canceled. The next day, the Serb was placed in detention and it was finally on January 10 that Judge Kelly lifts Serbian’s visa cancellation, considering that he was unable to provide more information to the border police. He also orders his immediate release. Except that the Australian government, via the Minister of Immigration Alex Hawke, makes it known that it will evaluate the possibility of using its “personal power of cancellation”. This decision is finally made on Friday 14 January.
The Serb had already created controversy in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, by organizing the Adria Tour, a tennis and charity event, during which many participants (Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric, Viktor Troicki) as well as Djokovic himself and his wife Jelena had tested positive for Covid-19. Contaminations which had quickly triggered a flood of criticism from actors in the world of tennis. Lack of physical distance, hugs, farandoles with children, wild dances in a Belgrade nightclub… The images of the first stages of this Adria Tour, in Belgrade and Zadar, in the midst of a global pandemic, had indeed shocked, in particular this video captured in a nightclub in Belgrade:
Novak Djokovic met Jelena Ristic during her school career in Belgrade in the early 2000s. Not everything was easy for the young lovers, since Novak played his tournaments all over the world while Jelena completed her studies in Italy. The couple finally took up residence in Monaco and decided to get married in 2014. Jelena gave birth to their son Stefan in 2014, then to a little girl named Tara, in 2016. At the same time, Jelena Djokovic is director of the Novak Djokovic foundation, which the promotion of education in their native country.