Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has blasted the “conspiracy theories” surrounding Novak Djokovic and also taken aim at Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Djokovic, 34, became embroiled in an explosive saga last month after initially announcing that despite not being vaccinated against Covid-19, he had been handed a medical exemption to compete in the Australian Open.
However, upon his arrival at Melbourne Airport, he had his visa revoked and was detained by border force officials, although later won a legal appeal against being deported.
Australia’s immigration minister Alex Hawke then cancelled his visa a second time though, after it emerged the world no 1 had flouted isolation rules after testing positive for Covid in December, the basis of his original exemption.
Furthermore, the Serbian was then forced to explain why his immigration forms were submitted with false information, denying he had deliberately tried to mislead officials.
He did, however, contest Hawke’s decision again, but this time around three federal judges ruled against him and he flew back to Serbia just hours before the first Grand Slam tournament of 2022 got underway.
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Despite his undoubted status as an all-time great, Djokovic has never enjoyed the adulation afforded to rivals Federer and Nadal, a notion further hindered by the controversy that has centred around the Serbian’s refusal to be vaccinated.
And to make matters worse last month, having been removed from the Australian Open, Djokovic then could only watch on as Nadal completed a remarkable recovery from injury to beat Daniil Medvedev in the final and become the first player in history to win that coveted 21st Slam.
And Vucic claimed that the popularity of the Spaniard, and Swiss legend Federer, has led to discrimination against the man who has now surpassed both in terms of career earnings.
“Federer and Nadal are saints, and Djokovic is not because he is a Serb,” Vucic added.
