The trials and tribulations of Novak Djokovic in Australia proceed to be surreal.
Djokovic has been in custody because the nation’s authorities have overridden a medical exemption to the vaccine mandate granted to him by the Australian Open, as his legal professionals attraction. His mom, Dijana, in contrast him to a prisoner.
“I really feel horrible since yesterday that they’re retaining him as a prisoner. It’s not truthful. It’s not human. I hope that he’ll win,” she instructed the Related Press after talking with him briefly by phone from Belgrade.
“Horrible, horrible lodging. It’s just a few small immigration resort, if it’s [a] resort in any respect.”
The Melbourne Park “Resort” the place Djokovic has been residing got here beneath worldwide criticism as a illness “incubator” months earlier than his keep there.
An article published in the Guardian in October described a scene the place refugees and asylum seekers who needed to keep there shared a standard kitchen space. Home windows within the constructing have been sealed shut, that means the air recirculated. Over 20 individuals — almost half of the visitors there in late October — contracted COVID-19.
“Everyone could be very drained, everybody could be very offended,” Iraqi refugee Salah Mustafa instructed the outlet. “We’re feeling like animals, like we’re in a cage. They [the Australian government] are mocking us … they don’t care.”
Australia has had notoriously strict COVID-19 restrictions from every little thing to masks to lockdowns to vaccine mandates all through the pandemic.
Djokovic has repeatedly declined to reveal whether or not he’s vaccinated for COVID-19.
The stakes are high for Djokovic if he should miss the Australian Open. He has received the event 9 instances, together with the final three years. He’s presently tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for many main victories of all-time, with 20.
