Exit pursued by men in suits: even in a drama as strange as the life and times of Novak Djokovic, it is the most unlikely of stage directions.
Yet the comical episode that saw Djokovic taking a morning jog around Astana with a group of smartly-dressed bodyguards dashing along behind him was not even the oddest thing that happened to him last week. That came a few days later, with the revelation that scientists in Serbia have named a new species of beetle after Djokovic because of its speed, strength and flexibility. Reports that Duvalius djokovici also possesses silken-smooth groundstrokes remain unconfirmed at the time of writing.
There is a serious side to all this, however. That Djokovic was even in the Kazakh capital is indicative of the unusual nature of a season that has been overshadowed by his steadfast refusal to take a Covid vaccine. Ejected from Australia in January over a breach of entry rules, and unable to enter the US as an unvaccinated non-citizen, the Serb missed two of the four majors. The ATP’s decision to strip Wimbledon of ranking points over the tournament’s ban on Russians and Belarusians compounded his problems, denying him the 2,000 points that would ordinarily have accompanied his 21st grand slam title.
These various privations have seen the 35-year-old’s ranking slip to seventh, which meant he needed a win in Kazakhstan merely to guarantee his place at next month’s ATP Finals in Turin. It is a scenario few would have anticipated after the incredible achievements of last year, when Djokovic came within one win of completing a calendar-year grand slam.
For all his trials and tribulations, however, the Serb looks undiminished. His 6-3, 6-4 victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas in Astana was ruthlessly efficient. A single break point, the only one faced by either player, was all Djokovic needed to establish a one-set lead. His performance on serve was so miserly that Tsitsipas was unable to fashion a break point throughout. It was very much the Djokovic of old.
The Serb, who also tore through the field in Tel Aviv the previous week, has now won nine consecutive matches in straight sets. Those efforts have taken his overall title haul to 90 – fifth on the all-time list behind Jimmy Connors (109), Roger Federer (103), Ivan Lendl (94) and Rafael Nadal (92) – and lifted his career win percentage to 83.29%, fractionally ahead of Nadal as the best in the history of the men’s game.
In short, if the events of this year have taken a toll on Djokovic, it has rarely been obvious in his play. He has won five of the nine events he has played and insists he is reconciled to his altered circumstances. “My approach is to win tournaments wherever I am,” he said in Astana.
Adapting to the situation is not the same as liking it, however, and while all may be well on the face of it, the Serb’s reluctance to lie in a bed of his own making has been clear. Despite declaring in his infamous February interview with the BBC that he was prepared to miss tournaments over the right to remain unvaccinated, Djokovic has repeatedly made hopeful noises as those events have drawn closer.
“Let’s see what happens,” he said before the “sunshine swing” of Indian Wells and Miami. “I mean, maybe things change in the next few weeks.”
It was a similar story before the US Open, when he wrote on social media, alongside a video of himself practising: “I am preparing as if I will be allowed to compete, while I await to hear if there is any room for me to travel to [the] US.”
You can hardly blame Djokovic for holding out hope. Equally, it is unsurprising that not everyone has warmed to the disparity between his professed willingness to accept his fate and the shift of tone that has come over him when required to do so. The most egregious example came before Indian Wells, when – though ineligible to enter the US – he failed to pull out in a timely fashion, resulting in a skewed draw.
Importantly, that misstep has not been repeated. And as Djokovic’s wife Jelena pointed out in a spiky social media exchange with Racquet Magazine before the US Open, entry to Masters 1000 tournaments is automatic, meaning that repeated withdrawals are inevitable. Even so, Djokovic has not always helped himself with his public pronouncements, at times creating the impression of a man unwilling to take responsibility for his own actions. A case in point came in Tel Aviv.
“I try not to involve myself in political discussions or interactions, because that’s not going to take me anywhere,” said Djokovic. “Unfortunately, this year I was involved in some of the political storms because of some of the decisions that I made.
“I don’t want to be in the midst of something like that again, but I guess people like to put me there. It’s OK, it’s fine, I’ve developed a thick skin, being from Serbia.”
These words perfectly encapsulate the divergent strands of Djokovic’s thinking. In almost the same breath, he accepts that his difficulties are down to his own decisions, then seeks to shift the blame. To be clear, though, it is not “people” that have placed Djokovic in the path of political difficulties. It is his choice to remain unvaccinated, and while that is a personal right, it has also left him at the mercy of late rule changes and political leniency.
Witness the storm already brewing over his participation at next year’s Australian Open. Djokovic, barred from entering the country for three years following his deportation, awaits “positive news”. Karen Andrews, the former home affairs minister, says lifting the ban would be a “slap in the face” of vaccinated Australians. Craig Tiley, the head of Tennis Australia, insists he is unable to lobby the government on Djokovic’s behalf. The tournament is three months away, and already the situation feels like an ungodly mess.
“Novak and the federal government need to work out the situation, and then we’ll follow any instruction after that,” said Tiley. “He knows it’s going to be an ultimate decision for the federal government. He’s accepted that position. It’s a private matter between them. It’s not a matter we can lobby on.”
The worry in all this is that even Djokovic surely cannot keep producing his best tennis indefinitely while battling on multiple fronts. The professional game is hard enough, without having to contend with political distractions. Fighting to win a major is one thing; fighting merely to gain entry is quite another, certainly for a player with legitimate title pretensions wherever he competes. Djokovic may be as hard as nails, but he is also human – a point that his coach, Goran Ivanisevic, was keen to emphasise after the Serb’s Wimbledon victory.
“This was a huge thing, what happened to him [in Australia],” said Ivanisevic. “Unbelievable how he recovered and how he got through that. It’s really heroic, because it was not easy to digest all the things and come back to play tennis. Then you’re thinking, ‘Why you have to play tennis?’
“You cannot make a schedule, because one country changes the rules. Now you can enter, now you cannot enter. We cannot make any schedule. We practise, but we don’t know for what we are practising. It was not easy.”
The noises emanating from Australia suggest things are unlikely to get any easier in the immediate future. Djokovic will not relish it, but the personal and the political have become inextricably entwined.