Novak Djokovic ‘needs time to recover’ after Australian Open ‘ordeal’

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Novak Djokovic “needs time to recover” after his “ordeal” in Australia, according to former British No 1 Johanna Konta. Djokovic was deported from Australia on Sunday after spending 11 days battling against the decision to cancel his visa.

Djokovic touched down in Melbourne a fortnight ago with intentions of defending his Australian Open crown.

He had been handed a medical exemption by tournament organisers, despite the fact he hasn’t been vaccinated against COVID-19.

But he was sent to an immigration facility following his arrival after the Australian Border Force deemed the exemption to be invalid.

Djokovic won a court appeal and he took to the tennis court to begin preparations for the first Grand Slam of the year.

But Australia’s immigration minister Alex Hawke then exercised his right to personally revoke the player’s visa for a second time.

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Djokovic faced a second court appeal at the weekend but lost it and was forced to leave the country.

The eyes of the world were on the debacle Down Under. And Konta believes the events will have taken their toll on the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

“To be honest I think right now he probably needs to take a little bit of time to recover from what happened in Australia,” Konta told Eurosport.

“I think that was quite an ordeal and we have no idea how much emotional stress and energy that took out of him.

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“He’s probably going to take some time, look after himself, spend time with his family and then reassess on how he wants to move forward.”

Since Djokovic was deported, there has been talk that he could struggle to gain entry to other tournaments around the world due to his vaccination status.

And Konta says the 34-year-old has a tough decision to make if he wants to ensure he can continue to compete at the biggest events on the tennis calendar.

But she also admitted it’s sad to see one of the best players of all time in such an invidious situation.

“Things will move and he will have to see how he wants to continue,” the former Wimbledon semi-finalist added.

“And the more these things happen, the narrower his decisions have to become.

“There’s a lot of different elements to it but I think overall it’s just a sad situation.

“It’s so sad to see someone who does actually try really hard to do right by people, to do right by fans, right by tournaments – he’s quite generous with his money and his time to help.

“I think it’s unfortunate to see someone be in that situation and hurting like that.”

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