šŸŽ¾ Tennis | Novak Djokovic at the Aussie Open

The number one seed Dimitrov retires in his opening match at the Winston Salem Open, after experiencing dizziness and shortness of breath in the second set.
I bet the baffled doctors are baffled at this baffling bafflement yet again.

Ban overturned.

Tennis star Novak Djokovic to be granted visa to play in Australian Open | Novak Djokovic | The Guardian.

Those Aussies who had 4 shots must feel a little cheated. Djoker is still alive with zero shots :laughing:

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And he is now back in OZ getting ready to play in the AO. Times change.

And presumably no cardiovascular damage either. Heā€™s gonna be unstoppable.

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hope he wins to ā€˜slap the facesā€™ of authorities down under

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Surprised nobody has mentioned this:

As I recall, there was quite a lot of gloating when Djokovic was harassed and kicked out of the country for not following their stupid ā€œrulesā€ about participating in medical experiments. I donā€™t really care much about either tennis or Djokovic, but I do like it when assholes in authority get a well-deserved ā€œfuck youā€.

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ā€¦ by someone being considered an asshole in shorts himself, I might add.

Heā€™s 11/1 to win the calendar grand slam. Could be worth a punt.

ā€œConsideredā€, passive voice, by whom exactly?

Sportsmen do tend to be disagreeable. Itā€™s in the nature of what they do. Having a singleminded focus on winning, on reaching the top of your game, it tends to come with the territory.

Has Djokovic ever forced anyone to take medicine they donā€™t want or need? Detained or humiliated them for no good reason? Refused to interact with someone because they donā€™t follow his religion? I donā€™t think so. In this case, there are degrees of assholery, and the Australian authorities have really outdone themselves over the past couple of years.

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I mis-typed. Wanted to say: ā€œhe is considered an asshole by some peopleā€ Not related to Covid or Australia, in general.

Iā€™d suggest that ā€œsome peopleā€ are wrong.

Instead of ranting and badmouthing the Australian authorities - which would have been entirely expected if he were actually an asshole - he made a few diplomatic statements to the press, immersed himself in training, and came back in winning form. Classiest ā€œfuck youā€ ever, IMO.

I think the problem today is that youā€™re considered an asshole if you donā€™t suffer fools gladly.

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Iā€™ve put a hundred quid on the fecker to win the grand slam

Djoker was overcome with emotion afterwards. He was sobbing, loudly, surround by his team and family. He doesnā€™t usually get so emotional. He called it his greatest achievement.

I watched him play. You see he was going to win from day one. He never lost focus. After all heā€™s been through. He was definitely making a point. Everyone was saying he was on another level.

He was treated like a criminal. Most Aussies still think he shouldā€™ve ā€œsimply got the shots.ā€ If they were having to be locked down, couldnā€™t leave the country, had to have three jabs, etc., then why was he allowed? So, rather than telling their actual oppressors to eff off, they simply wanted everyone to allow the stormtroopers free reign over everyoneā€™s lives. No exceptions. Djoker included. Heā€™s not popular there, even after the win.

Good for him. As sportspeople go, heā€™s quite the hero in my book. If more of them had of had the balls to ā€œman upā€ like he did, then the biomedical tyranny and totalitarianism might have ended even sooner.

:tennis: :trophy: :clap:

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Roland Garros would be a stretch given his performance history there. But itā€™s Novak, so I think 11/1 are decent odds.

No Nadal now though, right? edit: he is still playing. i thought he retired last year.

Heā€™s still playing and will be defending his title. His recent form has been poor but heā€™s just a different monster on clay.

Australia is one place on earth where Iā€™m certain of there was ever to be a dystopian ruler, people would trip over themselves to be the first to bow down and submit. Canada a close second.

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Most of the news media suggest that Novakā€™s involuntary departure from Australia a year ago was due to his Vaccination Status, and conveniently forgot that it was the media coverage of his whereabouts in Europe in the 14 days prior to his arrival that brought him undone.

The ā€˜minderā€™ that filled out his online incoming passenger card and which Novak later submitted, ā€˜forgotā€™ to list all the countries the he had visited in those 14 days, and which the media had focused on after his initial court ā€˜winā€™.

Novak made a false statement and that was his undoing.

Taiwan and NZ might be high on that list.

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It was mentioned quite a lot. But so what? ā€œWhere have you beenā€ is, and was, as stupid a question, and as stupid a potential reason for excluding someone, as ā€œwhat is your religionā€. Lying about it (or ā€œmaking a mistakeā€ about it) is hardly at a level of criminality comparable to, say, having half a kilo of meth in your luggage. Various countries are routinely laughed at, or excoriated, for refusing entry to people with an Israeli stamp in their passport. Assuming the MSM media claims were even true (I donā€™t remember him commenting on it), this is on the same level of peevishness.

I was under the impression that the whole point of a passport was that it recorded where you had been in the last 14 days, and therefore this would have been obvious to immigration officials in the first instance and it would be pointless to lie about it, but why did it even matter? It was just another layer of mindless nonsense that had no purpose except to give the Bottom Inspectors a reason to harass people. They had already made up their mind that he had to be made an example of. They seized upon that technicality as a reason to kick him out simply because they could, not because it was a matter of crucial importance.

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