People in the Balkans, the region where the tennis player Novak Djokovic comes from, know the type. Do anything you can, even lie or mislead people, to find the shortest way. Oh, and be as much of an asshole as you can to impress.

That is more or less what Mr. Djokovic has been doing during the past weeks as he tried to fool the Australian authorities to let him in the country to participate in a tennis tournament. After he got infected with Covid-19 in mid-December 2021, Mr. Djokovic attended a panel discussion, an award ceremony and a photo shoot with a team from the French newspaper L’Equipe. He didn’t give a hoot about those around him; and who knows how many more people he met. Over the Christmas period, Mr. Djokovic was pictured playing tennis in the streets of Belgrade.

When Mr. Djokovic landed in Melbourne on 5 January 2022, his visa was revoked because he was not vaccinated. He was outraged, of course, what can an arrogant Balkan athlete do?

Recently it turned out that Mr. Djokovic even lied in the travel entry form where he stated that he had not traveled anywhere else during the two weeks before his arrival in Australia although he was in Spain the week before arriving to Australia.

Mr. Djokovic, who said that he “opposed” the vaccines even before the Covid-19 vaccines were made available, apologized in the end for some of his behavior. He said that accepting to do the photo shoot with L’Equipe was an “error of judgment.” When it comes to the false declaration on the travel form for the entry to Australia he threw the blame on a member of his team, calling it “human error.”

As the world is struggling with the pandemic, people like Mr. Djokovic are an unneeded nuisance we all have to cope with.


Photo: Wikimedia Commons

“There are too many idiots in this world. And having said it, I have the burden of proving it.”

Frantz Fanon
Tags: