It is over. The Immigration Minister of Australia denied Novak Djokovic's appeal of his visa revocation. It's not likely that he will break the record for most Grand Slam titles in a single year, nor that he will win his 10th Australian Open. One wonders if his prize of being a cultural icon will be enough for him now that he's in the middle of a heated, moronic debate. One gets the sense that it will be.
You have to give it to him. He makes it count when he leaves a Grand Slam. A year and a half ago he was disqualified from the US Open for cracking a linesperson with a ball that he launched in frustration after losing a game. He was crushed by Danil Medvedev in the final of the calendar Grand Slam at the ripe old age of a year later. And now this.
If he had a sense of the world around him, this wouldn't have been so weird, frustrating, and stupid. He has had to settle for mostly grudging respect from tennis fans, as he has ascended to the very top of the game and heights no one else has reached, while he has always begged for the adulation that has come to Roger and Rafa. You can see him trying to be popular with the crowd at a Grand Slam. The constant pleas for more noise, the salutes after wins, the desperate pleas for more noise at times, the constant imploring the fans to be on his side. When he feels fans cheering for his opponent, he will immediately snap at them with a defiant roar.
It is not clear why the same love was never given to him. Maybe it was all used up by Nadal and Federer. It is more of a battering of opponents than an art game, as it is accessible. He had some prickly moments both on-court and off in his youth, though some of that was response to what other players were saying about him. He has a unique background for a tennis player, emerging from war-torn Serbia. He faced many challenges and his family put in a lot of sacrifice so that he could overcome them. He is not a country club.
It's possible that the edge that he has in proving people wrong and smirking while doing it, even if he tries to cover it up with a smile after, was instilled by that. It is almost certainly what has made him the player he is, but also has kept most of the tennis world at a distance.
The vaccine and the Australian Open's rules were just something else that he had to overcome. If you squint, you can see why he protects his body. His career didn't launch until he overcame health issues. The player who retired at this tournament against Andy Roddick was the same one who had thoughts about the physical conditioning of Novak Djokovic. One of the most fit people on the planet is Novak Djokovic.
He refused to see anything else that had put him in this position. Nothing was going to stop him from answering, and he had always come from within his camp. Not having his own tournament turn into a super-spreader event two years ago, or his wife catching the virus after it, not a thing. It is possible that he would never hear anyone else's opinion because he has never been universally loved in a way he deems worthy.
It has to be checked when it spills over the line from self-interest to actual danger. As the saying goes, "Your freedom to swing your arm stops when you hit me in the face." Maybe he can't see that because he doesn't think anyone cares about him.
It is perfect that all of this will keep him as beloved as the other competitors. The ship has left. He worked so hard for that, wanted it so badly, and then got in his own way of getting that because he couldn't think about anyone but himself.
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