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      At the Australian Open, Everyone Not Named Djokovic Is Ready to Star

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      After Novak Djokovic’s immigration troubles, he is gone, but don’t worry: Plenty of other stars and story lines are ready for the spotlight.MELBOURNE, Australia — It has been an exhausting two weeks, as if a Grand Slam tennis tournament has been contested already — albeit in courts instead of on them, and with all the focus on two missed shots.Novak Djokovic’s battle with the Australian government ended on Sunday, when a court in Melbourne denied the unvaccinated tennis star’s request to overturn the government’s decision to revoke his visa. After dominating the news cycle and even delaying release of the match schedule, Djokovic left the country, unable to compete in the Australian Open, which begins Monday.“Australian Open is much more important than any player,” Rafael Nadal said in his pretournament news conference. “If he’s playing finally, OK. If he’s not playing, Australian Open will be great Australian Open with or without him.”Rafael Nadal practicing in Melbourne on Saturday.Quinn Rooney/Getty ImagesContemporaries, and contenders?Djokovic’s cohort of champions, including Nadal himself, could make noise at this event. Nadal, who is also going for a record 21st Grand Slam title to break the three-way tie with Djokovic and Roger Federer, won a small tournament in Melbourne in the first week of the season and has been able to practice at full strength less than a month after contracting the coronavirus. Nadal, seeded sixth, opens against Marcos Giron of the United States on Monday.Andy Murray, the only player consistently able to hang with the Big Three during their primes, also enters the Open with confidence after reaching the final of the ATP tournament in Sydney last week.Ashleigh Barty of Australia is the favorite to win women’s singles.Andy Cheung/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA midtournament showdown loomsAshleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka ended their seasons after losses at the U.S. Open last year, and both looked rested and ready in the first week of this season. Barty, who had to complete a lengthy quarantine upon her return home, said on Saturday that she had made the decision to stop when she did last year for “the right reasons” for herself.“Ultimately I felt like I’d had a fantastic year,” Barty said. “I was tired. I knew that for me to give myself the best chance to start well here in Australia was to go home and rest. I have absolutely no regrets.”Barty, the top-ranked player in women’s tennis, won the singles and doubles titles in Adelaide in the first week of the season, positioning herself as a favorite to win her first Australian Open title. Barty has embraced being the home favorite and the pressure that comes with trying to be the first Australian man or woman to win a singles title here since 1978, the longest such home champion drought of any Grand Slam event.“I just have to hope that everyone understands that I’m giving it my best crack,” she said. “It doesn’t always work out exactly how you want to. But you go about it the right way, you do the right things and try to give yourself the best chance — that’s all you can do. That goes for all the other Aussies as well.”When the draw came out, the match that was quickly circled as Barty’s toughest test in her path to the title was a potential fourth-round encounter with the defending champion, Osaka, who is seeded 13th. After saying she was taking an indefinite break from tennis after her third-round loss at the U.S. Open, Osaka played well in her first tournament back this month, reaching the semifinals of a small event in Melbourne before withdrawing with a minor abdominal injury.Emma Raducanu will face Sloane Stephens in her opening match.Mike Frey/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRaducanu readies for returnEmma Raducanu, the shock 2021 U.S. Open champion who marched through qualifying and the main draw without dropping a set, has begun this season less auspiciously. After contracting the coronavirus last month, she said, her training has been limited to “maybe six, seven” hours on court before she played her first match in Sydney last week.It showed. Raducanu was blitzed, 6-0, 6-1, by Elena Rybakina.Raducanu has a tough test in her opening match, facing the 2017 U.S. Open champion, Sloane Stephens. Stephens, who married her longtime boyfriend, the soccer player Jozy Altidore, on New Year’s Day, also comes to the tournament without much competitive preparation.“Obviously you don’t win a Grand Slam without being very capable,” Raducanu said Saturday, referring to Stephens. “I think it’s going to be a tough match for sure. I’m going to go out there and enjoy the match, because just playing in this Grand Slam, I had to work so hard to be here.”Another first-round match of particular interest features two rebounding Americans: 11th-seeded Sofia Kenin, whose 2020 Australian Open title helped her earn WTA player of the year honors that season, opens against Madison Keys.Kenin, who struggled with injuries and family problems last season, showed promise during a run to the quarterfinals this month in Adelaide in her first tournament since Wimbledon. Keys, whose ranking had slipped to 87th, won a tournament in Adelaide the next week and rose to No. 51.Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, left, and Italy’s Matteo Berrettini during a practice session on Saturday.Andy Cheung/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBurst bubblesThough the Djokovic news might make it seem otherwise, there are far fewer restrictions for vaccinated players at the tournament this year compared with the strict hotel quarantines last year that compromised preparations for many athletes.But while the reins loosen on players, the landscape regarding the coronavirus pandemic has shifted drastically around them. At one time, there were only a handful of cases in the country each day; the rolling average is now over 100,000. Australia is heavily vaccinated, which has greatly reduced deaths and serious illness, but the tournament has still “paused” ticket sales at 50 percent for sessions that had not yet exceeded that amount in sales. All purchased tickets will be honored.Dylan Alcott of Australia has said he will retire after the Open.Martin Keep/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhen g’day means goodbyeTwo Australian fan favorites are calling it a career at this year’s tournament. Samantha Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champion, has said that this will be her last tournament in singles. Stosur, 37, has said she may continue to play doubles with Zhang Shuai; the two won last year’s U.S. Open.Dylan Alcott, who won a “Golden Slam” last year in quad wheelchair singles, by winning all four majors and a Paralympic gold medal in the same year, will also retire. Alcott’s face is one of the most prominent in promotional posters for the tournament around the city, and the tournament plans to hold the final of his event in Rod Laver Arena.Alcott’s odds of a happy ending seem good: He has won 15 of the 19 Grand Slam singles events he has contested in his career.The top American, Taylor Fritz, is one of the players participating in a Netflix series about the men’s and women’s pro tours.Kelly Defina/Getty ImagesGame, set, match; lights, camera, actionLong envious of the popularity that Formula 1 racing received as a result of its Netflix series “Drive to Survive,” tennis players have expressed excitement about the start of production on their own documentary series.With cooperation between the tours and the four Grand Slams providing access to camera crews around the tour, filming is underway at Melbourne Park. Though the full cast of key characters from the men’s and women’s tours is not yet known, Stefanos Tsitsipas and the top American, Taylor Fritz, are known to be participating.Novak Djokovic won’t defend his Australian Open title this year.John Donegan/Associated PressHow to watch the Australian OpenWith a 16-hour time difference between Melbourne and the Eastern time zone, watching the year’s first Grand Slam tournament can make for its own sporting challenge, with sleep a ferocious opponent, depending on where in the world you are watching from.For the most part, the tournament’s day sessions begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time, with the night sessions in Melbourne beginning at 3:30 a.m. (Match times are subject to change.)In the United States, matches will be broadcast on ESPN and the Tennis Channel, and in Canada they will be on TSN.The complete match schedule can be found on AusOpen.com. More

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      Serbia's Vucic Denounces Australia’s Treatment of Novak Djokovic as ‘Orwellian’

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      In the tennis star’s homeland, even those who didn’t support his decision to remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus said that he had been mistreated.BELGRADE, Serbia — President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia blasted the Australian government on Sunday for what he called the “harassment” of Novak Djokovic, deriding the legal process that led to the tennis star’s deportation one day before the start of the Australian Open as “Orwellian” and saying that the player would be welcomed home.“I talked to Novak a while ago, and I encouraged him, and I told him that I can’t wait for him to come to Serbia and return to his country, and to be where he is always welcome,” Mr. Vucic said in a statement on the day that Mr. Djokovic left Australia after a legal dispute surrounding his coronavirus vaccination status.“They think that they humiliated Djokovic with this 10-day harassment, and they actually humiliated themselves,” Mr. Vucic said.In Serbia, where Mr. Djokovic is deeply revered and widely respected as one of his country’s greatest sports stars, even those who did not support his decision to remain unvaccinated said that he had been maligned and mistreated.Dr. Predrag Kon, a member of Serbia’s pandemic response team who has been a lead voice in calling for people to get vaccinated as the rapidly spreading Omicron variant brings a new wave of infection, joined those expressing outrage.A mural of Mr. Djokovic in Belgrade, Serbia, where he is revered as one of his country’s greatest sports stars.Marko Risovic for The New York Times“I am shocked by the decision,” he wrote on Facebook. “This is by no means in the spirit of the International Health Regulations, which speak of the free movement of passengers, goods and services. I wish he never got into this situation.”Vuk Jeremic, who was Serbia’s foreign minister from 2007 to 2012 before serving as president of the United Nations General Assembly, said that Mr. Djokovic’s refusal to be vaccinated should be seen in the context of the region.“Unfortunately, such is the widespread opinion in most of southeast Europe, the underlying reasons being deep and to do with general distrust toward governments and institutions, after decades of terrible corruption and growing inequality,” Mr. Jeremic said.But he said that in no way justified the events as they played out.“The Australian government’s conduct toward him has been utterly disgraceful,” Mr. Jeremic said in an email sent as Mr. Djokovic’s legal team was making its arguments in court.A panel of three federal judges went on to rule that Australia’s immigration minister was within his rights to cancel the unvaccinated tennis star’s visa on the basis that the player could pose a risk to public health and order.Mr. Jeremic called the Australian government’s mantra in the case — “rules are rules” — hypocrisy.“All the other tournament participants who got the medical exemption from the same medical panel got the same visa and entered Australia without hindrance,” Mr. Jeremic said. “Novak is a victim of brinkmanship by shameless populists, exclusively driven by snap opinion polls.”Fans of Mr. Djokovic outside the Federal Court in Melbourne on Sunday after the ruling. Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesAfter revoking Mr. Djokovic’s visa a second time, all the Australian government had to do to win its legal case this weekend was show that the tennis star “may” cause harm if allowed to stay in the country despite being unvaccinated against the coronavirus.But in Serbia, the decision to kick Mr. Djokovic out of Australia was greeted with outrage. On Sunday, the headline of a leading tabloid, Kurir, captured the mood: “Shame on Australia! The biggest shame in the history of sports happened in Melbourne.”The Serbian Tennis Federation said it was a victory of politics over sports.Mr. Djokovic, in an emailed statement, said that he was “extremely disappointed” but that he respected the ruling. He left Australia on a flight to Dubai a few hours after releasing the statement, which his team said would be his last comments on the matter until the Australian Open was over.While Mr. Djokovic said he was uncomfortable with all of the attention and hoped the focus could return to tennis, there was agreement in Serbia that the matter had been handled poorly. Many believe that Mr. Djokovic would not have been treated the same way if he had come from a richer country.The tennis player’s father, Srdjan Djokovic — who is not known for understatement and who compared his son to Jesus Christ during the ordeal — broke several days of silence to repost an image on Instagram on Sunday morning.Written over pictures of his son winning trophies were the words: “The attempt to assassinate the best athlete in the world has ended, 50 bullets in Novak’s chest.”The parents and brother of Mr. Djokovic spoke to the news media in Belgrade this past week. The tennis player’s father, Srdjan Djokovic, has compared his son to Jesus Christ because of the imbroglio.Zorana Jevtic/ReutersThe imbroglio could have been avoided, Mr. Vucic said, if Australia had made it clear that the player would have to be vaccinated to enter the country and play.The Novak Djokovic Standoff With AustraliaCard 1 of 5A vaccine exemption question. More

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      Serbia’s Leader Denounces Australia’s Treatment of Djokovic as ‘Orwellian’

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      In the tennis star’s homeland, even those who didn’t support his decision to remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus said that he had been mistreated.BELGRADE, Serbia — President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia blasted the Australian government on Sunday for what he called the “harassment” of Novak Djokovic, deriding the legal process that led to the tennis star’s deportation one day before the start of the Australian Open as “Orwellian” and saying that the player would be welcomed home.“I talked to Novak a while ago, and I encouraged him, and I told him that I can’t wait for him to come to Serbia and return to his country, and to be where he is always welcome,” Mr. Vucic said in a statement on the day that Mr. Djokovic left Australia after a legal dispute surrounding his coronavirus vaccination status.“They think that they humiliated Djokovic with this 10-day harassment, and they actually humiliated themselves,” Mr. Vucic said.In Serbia, where Mr. Djokovic is deeply revered and widely respected as one of his country’s greatest sports stars, even those who did not support his decision to remain unvaccinated said that he had been maligned and mistreated.Dr. Predrag Kon, a member of Serbia’s pandemic response team who has been a lead voice in calling for people to get vaccinated as the rapidly spreading Omicron variant brings a new wave of infection, joined those expressing outrage.A mural of Mr. Djokovic in Belgrade, Serbia, where he is revered as one of his country’s greatest sports stars.Marko Risovic for The New York Times“I am shocked by the decision,” he wrote on Facebook. “This is by no means in the spirit of the International Health Regulations, which speak of the free movement of passengers, goods and services. I wish he never got into this situation.”Vuk Jeremic, who was Serbia’s foreign minister from 2007 to 2012 before serving as president of the United Nations General Assembly, said that Mr. Djokovic’s refusal to be vaccinated should be seen in the context of the region.“Unfortunately, such is the widespread opinion in most of southeast Europe, the underlying reasons being deep and to do with general distrust toward governments and institutions, after decades of terrible corruption and growing inequality,” Mr. Jeremic said.But he said that in no way justified the events as they played out.“The Australian government’s conduct toward him has been utterly disgraceful,” Mr. Jeremic said in an email sent as Mr. Djokovic’s legal team was making its arguments in court.A panel of three federal judges went on to rule that Australia’s immigration minister was within his rights to cancel the unvaccinated tennis star’s visa on the basis that the player could pose a risk to public health and order.Mr. Jeremic called the Australian government’s mantra in the case — “rules are rules” — hypocrisy.“All the other tournament participants who got the medical exemption from the same medical panel got the same visa and entered Australia without hindrance,” Mr. Jeremic said. “Novak is a victim of brinkmanship by shameless populists, exclusively driven by snap opinion polls.”Fans of Mr. Djokovic outside the Federal Court in Melbourne on Sunday after the ruling. Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesAfter revoking Mr. Djokovic’s visa a second time, all the Australian government had to do to win its legal case this weekend was show that the tennis star “may” cause harm if allowed to stay in the country despite being unvaccinated against the coronavirus.But in Serbia, the decision to kick Mr. Djokovic out of Australia was greeted with outrage. On Sunday, the headline of a leading tabloid, Kurir, captured the mood: “Shame on Australia! The biggest shame in the history of sports happened in Melbourne.”The Serbian Tennis Federation said it was a victory of politics over sports.Mr. Djokovic, in an emailed statement, said that he was “extremely disappointed” but that he respected the ruling. He left Australia on a flight to Dubai a few hours after releasing the statement, which his team said would be his last comments on the matter until the Australian Open was over.While Mr. Djokovic said he was uncomfortable with all of the attention and hoped the focus could return to tennis, there was agreement in Serbia that the matter had been handled poorly. Many believe that Mr. Djokovic would not have been treated the same way if he had come from a richer country.The tennis player’s father, Srdjan Djokovic — who is not known for understatement and who compared his son to Jesus Christ during the ordeal — broke several days of silence to repost an image on Instagram on Sunday morning.Written over pictures of his son winning trophies were the words: “The attempt to assassinate the best athlete in the world has ended, 50 bullets in Novak’s chest.”The parents and brother of Mr. Djokovic spoke to the news media in Belgrade this past week. The tennis player’s father, Srdjan Djokovic, has compared his son to Jesus Christ because of the imbroglio.Zorana Jevtic/ReutersThe imbroglio could have been avoided, Mr. Vucic said, if Australia had made it clear that the player would have to be vaccinated to enter the country and play.The Novak Djokovic Standoff With AustraliaCard 1 of 5A vaccine exemption question. More

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      How the ‘Djokovic Affair’ Finally Came to an End

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      Novak Djokovic lost to a government with powerful laws, determined to make an example out of him.SYDNEY, Australia — The day before the Australian Open was set to begin, Novak Djokovic, possibly the greatest tennis player of all time, ran up against a group of determined opponents that no amount of talent, training, money or willpower could overcome.He lost his final bid to stay in Australia on Sunday when a three-judge panel upheld the government’s decision to cancel his visa.More broadly, he lost to a government determined to make him a symbol of unvaccinated celebrity entitlement; to an immigration law that gives godlike authority to border enforcement; and to a public outcry, in a nation of rule-followers, over what was widely seen as Mr. Djokovic’s reckless disregard for others, after he said he had tested positive for Covid last month and met with two journalists anyway.“At this point, it’s about social norms and enforcing those norms to continue to get people to move in the same direction to overcome this pandemic,” said Brock Bastian, a social psychology professor at the University of Melbourne. “In this culture, in this country, a sense of suddenly upending those norms has a great cost politically and socially.”Only in the third exasperating year of a pandemic could the vaccination status of one individual be invested with so much meaning. For more than a week, the world gawked at a conflict centered on a controversial racket-swinger, filled with legal minutiae and dramatic ups and downs.Supporters of Novak Djokovic listened to court proceedings on Sunday outside the Australian Federal Court in Melbourne.Alana Holmberg for The New York TimesOn Sunday morning in Australia, more than 84,000 people watched the livestream of the hearing in a federal court, many of them presumably tuning in from other countries.What they witnessed was the saga’s bizarre final court scene: a six-panel video conference with lengthy arguments, in distant rooms of blond wood, about whether the immigration minister had acted rationally in exercising his power to detain and deport.The chief justice, James Allsop, announced the decision just before 6 p.m., after explaining that the court was not ruling on the merits of Mr. Djokovic’s stance, or on whether the government was correct in arguing that he might influence others to resist vaccination or defy public health orders. Rather, the court simply found that the immigration minister was within his rights to cancel the tennis star’s visa for a second time based on that possibility.Just a few days earlier, Mr. Djokovic’s lawyers had won a reprieve from his first visa cancellation, hours after his arrival on Jan. 5 at Melbourne’s airport. As of Friday morning, he seemed to be on his way to competing for a 10th Australian Open title and a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam. But that initial case had never reached beyond procedure, focusing on how Mr. Djokovic was treated at the airport as border officials had held him overnight.In the second round, his lawyers argued that the government had used faulty logic to insist their client’s presence would energize anti-vaccination groups, making him a threat to public health. In fact, they argued, anti-vaccine sentiment would be aggravated by his removal, citing protests that followed his first visa cancellation.“The minister is grasping for straws,” said Nicholas Wood, one of Mr. Djokovic’s lawyers. The alternative scenario — that deportation would empower anti-vaxxers — “was not considered,” he maintained.Journalists outside the offices of Mr. Djokovic’s legal team on Saturday. For more than a week, the world gawked at a conflict filled with legal minutiae and dramatic ups and downs.Loren Elliott/ReutersMr. Wood also disputed the government’s claim that Mr. Djokovic, 34, was a well-known promoter of vaccine opposition. The only comments cited in the government’s court filing, he said, came from April 2020, when vaccines had not yet been developed.Ever since then, his lawyers added, Mr. Djokovic had been careful to say very little about his vaccination status, which he confirmed only in his paperwork for Australia’s medical exemption.“There was no evidence before the minister that Mr. Djokovic has ever urged any others not to be vaccinated,” they wrote in a court filing before Sunday’s hearing. “Indeed, if anything, Mr. Djokovic’s conduct over time reveals a zealous protection of his own privacy rather than any advocacy.”The case, though, ultimately turned on the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, and his personal views. Justice Allsop pointed out in court that Australian immigration law provided a broad mandate: evidence can simply include the “perception and common sense” of the decision maker.Stephen Lloyd, arguing for the government, told the court it was perfectly reasonable for the immigration minister to be concerned about the influence of a “high-profile unvaccinated individual” who could have been vaccinated by now, but had not done so.He added that the concern about Mr. Djokovic’s impact went beyond vaccination, noting that Mr. Djokovic had not isolated after he said he tested positive for Covid in mid-December, meeting instead with two journalists in Belgrade. The government, Mr. Lloyd said, was worried that Australians would emulate his disregard for the standard rules of Covid safety if he were allowed to stay.Mr. Djokovic training at Melbourne Park on Friday. Many Australians believe he never should have been allowed to come without being vaccinated.Daniel Pockett/Getty Images“His connection to a cause whether he wants it or not is still present,” Mr. Lloyd said. “And his presence in Australia was seen to pose an overwhelming risk, and that’s what motivated the minister.”The court sided with the government, announcing its decision without immediately detailing its reasoning.The Novak Djokovic Standoff With AustraliaCard 1 of 5A vaccine exemption question. More

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      Novak Djokovic, a Master on the Court, Keeps Making Errors Off It

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      Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, is at the center of some of the most divisive debates of the pandemic: Individual versus community, science versus quackery.In April 2020, with the pro tennis tour suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, Novak Djokovic took part in a Facebook Live chat with some fellow Serbian athletes. During their conversation, Djokovic, famous for his punishing training regimen, abstemious diet and fondness for New Age beliefs, said he was “opposed to vaccination” and “wouldn’t want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel.”“But if it becomes compulsory, what will happen? I will have to make a decision,” he said.More than a year and a half later, Djokovic’s decision to seek a medical exemption to the Australian Open’s vaccine requirement has become a debacle for tennis — and one of the most bizarre episodes yet served up by the pandemic. Djokovic, 34, has done potentially irreparable harm to his own image. It is a bitter twist for a player who has long craved the adoration lavished on his chief rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and it is a sad coda to what is widely considered the greatest era in the history of men’s tennis.Djokovic arrived in Australia aiming to notch a record 21st Grand Slam singles title, which would put him one ahead of Federer and Nadal and strengthen his claim to being the most accomplished men’s player of all time. Instead, he now finds himself at the center of a global controversy that turns on some of the most divisive issues raised by the pandemic, in particular the question of individual freedom versus collective responsibility.Djokovic’s refusal to capitulate to an Australian government that has sought to bar him “in the public interest” because he is unvaccinated has made him a martyr in the eyes of some right-wing populists and those who oppose vaccines, and has elicited an outpouring of rage in Serbia.While Djokovic was sequestered in a Melbourne hotel room awaiting a court hearing on his entering the country, Nigel Farage, the far-right British politician and media figure who spearheaded the Brexit campaign, was in Belgrade, Serbia, expressing solidarity with the tennis star’s family. Djokovic’s father compared his son to Jesus Christ and Spartacus and hailed him as “the leader of the free world.” In Melbourne, a raucous crowd of Djokovic supporters chanted “Novak” and clashed with the police.Fans outside the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne on Monday showed their support for Djokovic in his visa legal battle.Sandra Sanders/ReutersAll of this is a strange turn of events for an athlete who has often been accused of trying too hard to win the world’s affection and who commands enormous respect within his sport, and not just because he has done so much winning. He’s a popular figure in the locker room, where he is seen as a strong advocate for players who are struggling financially: In 2020, he co-founded a players’ association with the stated goal of making tennis more remunerative for those down the ranks, though it’s unclear what that group has accomplished since. Djokovic also has distinguished himself with his philanthropy and with the graciousness he has shown Federer and Nadal. (“He’s a magnificent champion,” Djokovic said of Federer after beating him at Wimbledon in 2014.)In person, he is affable and engaging, with a keen interest in life beyond the baseline and a palpable sense of gratitude for his good fortune. Djokovic grew up during the Balkan wars of the 1990s — he was in Belgrade when NATO forces bombed Serbia and spent many nights huddled in the basement of his grandfather’s apartment building.Djokovic has said that the experience helped harden him into the champion he became. But it perhaps also bred a sense of imperviousness that has now led him astray.This standoff in Australia has also put a spotlight on some of the more troubling aspects of Djokovic’s public persona. He has long been a spiritual dabbler, with a weakness for what some regard as quackery. A few years ago, when Djokovic was mired in a slump, there was concern he had fallen under the sway of a Spanish tennis coach named Pepe Imaz, whose training philosophy, called Amor y Paz, or Love and Peace, emphasized meditation and group hugs. (“Human beings have infinite capacities and skills, the problem is that our mind limits us,” Imaz said on his website. “Telepathy, telekinesis, and many more things are all possible.”) In a video on YouTube, Djokovic is shown onstage with Imaz talking about the “need to be able to look inwards and to establish this connection with a divine light.”Some have questioned Djokovic’s relationship with Pepe Imaz, a Spanish tennis coach who emphasizes meditation and group hugs in his training philosophy.Gtres/Via ReutersWhen the tennis tour was on hiatus during the spring of 2020, Djokovic did several Instagram chats with the wellness guru Chervin Jafarieh. During one of their conversations, Djokovic claimed that the mind could purify water.“I know some people that, through energetical transformation, through the power of prayer, through the power of gratitude, they managed to turn the most toxic food, or maybe the most polluted water, into the most healing water, because the water reacts,” he said. “Scientists have proven that in experiment, that molecules in the water react to our emotions to what has been said.” (“The people of Flint, Michigan, would love to hear that news,” the tennis commentator Mary Carillo replied.)It was during this same period that Djokovic revealed on Facebook Live his opposition to vaccines and vaccine mandates. A few months later, he hosted an exhibition tour in the Balkans that became a superspreader event. Djokovic and his wife were among those who tested positive for the coronavirus. In the press and in tennis circles, Djokovic was pilloried for staging matches — with fans in attendance — during a public health crisis. But it was nothing compared to the opprobrium he has faced this month, particularly in Australia, where the public is chafing under Covid restrictions, and the Djokovic fight is playing out against the backdrop of an upcoming national election.Back in Serbia, however, Djokovic is seen as a victim who is being victimized because he is Serbian. “They are stomping all over Novak to stomp all over Serbia and Serbian people,” Djokovic’s father, Srdjan, told reporters. The Serbian foreign ministry put out a statement saying that the Serbian public “has a strong impression” that Djokovic was “lured to travel to Australia in order to be humiliated” and that it was feeling “understandable indignation.”The Djokovic flap has come at a time of resurgent Serbian nationalism in Bosnia, and it has also revived interest in Djokovic’s political views. On a visit to Bosnia last September, he was photographed with the former commander of a paramilitary group that was implicated in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. He was also videotaped singing at a wedding with Milorad Dodik, the hard-line Serbian nationalist whose separatist rhetoric is raising fears that Bosnia might again fall into conflict.A mural dedicated to Djokovic, inscribed with the words “With faith in God,” in the Banjica area of Belgrade.Marko Risovic for The New York TimesDjokovic has made comments over the years that suggested he was at least sympathetic to Serbian nationalism. In a speech in 2008, he said that Kosovo belonged to Serbia after it declared independence. On the other hand, he’s coached by a Croat, the former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, and is seen by many in the Balkans as a conciliatory figure. People around Djokovic believe that he is not as popular as Federer and Nadal in part because he comes from a small country with a bad reputation. But that’s not necessarily an expression of Serbian nationalism, and there’s likely some truth to it.The Novak Djokovic Standoff With AustraliaCard 1 of 4A vaccine exemption question. More

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      The Mental Health of Tennis Players Is No Longer in the Shadows

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      The sport is very stressful, and many professionals had to often manage their anxiety alone. Now the tours provide help.Robin Soderling was at the peak of his prowess when the walls started crumbling.In 2009, when Soderling was just 24, he stunned the four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal en route to the final of the French Open.Soderling reached the final again in 2010, losing to Nadal. By the end of the season, Soderling was ranked No. 4 in the world.Eight months later, he played his final match on the ATP Tour.“I always felt like I was under pressure,” Soderling, now 37, said on a video call from his home near Stockholm. “The better I became, the worse it got. Basically, every match I played I was the favorite. When I won, it was more of a relief than happy. When I lost, it was a disaster. Losing a tennis match made me feel like a terrible person.”When anxiety and panic attacks forced Robin Soderling of Sweden out of competition a decade ago, such issues weren’t talked about, he said. “There was such a big stigma.”Oscar Del Pozo/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesExpectations were high as soon as he had success as a junior. But by the time he was 26, Soderling was done, having experienced anxiety and panic attacks as well as debilitating mononucleosis.“My entire immune system was bad because of the mental stress I put on myself,” he said. “Even on my rest days I was never switched off. Then my body just tipped over. I went from being able to play a five-set match on clay to not being able to walk up the stairs. But I couldn’t really talk to many people about it because there was such a big stigma.”Sports psychologists are now a regular presence on the Women’s Tennis Association and ATP Tours. And almost no one is afraid to talk about it. At last year’s WTA Finals, most of the eight top singles players spoke freely about receiving counseling for mental health issues.“I’ve been working with a psychologist for years,” said Maria Sakkari, a semifinalist at the French and United States Opens in 2021. “I invested a lot in that. It’s probably the best gift I’ve ever done for myself.”Because tennis is an individual sport, most players are on their own with limited support networks. They travel for 11 months of the year and almost everyone regularly loses.“Tennis is one of the toughest sports because there are constant changes that sports with a consistent schedule don’t have,” said Danielle Collins, a top 30 player. “We never know what time we’re going to play. We travel from city to city each week on different continents, with different cultures, even different foods. We even play with different tennis balls. And we lose every week unless you win the tournament. That’s something that you have to adjust to.”Last October, on World Mental Health Day, Iga Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, announced she was donating $50,000 in prize money to a mental-health organization. She is open about the value of having the psychologist Daria Abramowicz as a member of her traveling staff. Venus Williams has partnered with the WTA to donate $2 million to BetterHelp, an online therapy site, to provide free service.Sports psychology and mental wellness are not new concepts. Ivan Lendl hired the therapist Alexis Castorri in 1985 to help him after he had lost three straight U.S. Open finals. He went on to win the next three. But only recently have players been so open about seeking counseling.Mardy Fish, the former touring pro and captain of the United States Davis Cup team, opened the discussion when he said he had panic attacks before his fourth-round match against Roger Federer at the 2012 U.S. Open. Fish withdrew from that match and was subsequently diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. He shed light on his journey in a Netflix documentary.Iga Swiatek of Poland, who won the French Open in 2020, has a psychologist on her traveling staff.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesNaomi Osaka made headlines last May when she dropped out of the French Open, citing mental health concerns. She lost in the third round at the U.S. Open in September, and just returned to the tour in Australia this month.Jim Loehr, a clinical psychologist, has been practicing since the 1970s and founded the Center for Athletic Excellence in Denver. He has seen the field evolve.“Back then, people were very quiet about seeing anyone who could help their game mentally,” said Loehr, who is also a co-founder of the Human Performance Institute. “And we couldn’t talk about it either because our work is confidential. Now, everyone seems to have a sports psychologist.“That makes perfect sense,” he said. “Athletes need a team around them in order to ignite extraordinary performances. A coach is there for biomechanical expertise in stroke production. Then there are physios and massage therapists to facilitate healing and trainers, nutritionists, sports psychologists, even spiritual advisers. The body is pretty complicated, and it works best when all parts are integrated. The healthier and happier you are, the more you light it up on the court.”The WTA and the ATP have also taken note of the importance of well-being. The ATP has teamed with Sporting Chance, a British mental health organization. ATP players can call counselors and therapists 24 hours a day, seven days a week.“We have a hand-in-hand collaboration that makes it feel like an in-house service,” said Ross Hutchins, a former tour player and the ATP’s chief tour officer. “The goal is to make players more open to talking about their issues in a more comfortable manner. They may not want to chitchat about it the way they would with physical injuries, but we want to make it OK for them to feel any way they do.”Maria Sakkari, a semifinalist at the French and United States Opens in 2021, said she has long worked with a psychologist. “It’s probably the best gift I’ve ever done for myself.”Hector Vivas/Getty Images The WTA, which has offered mental health services for more than 20 years, recently began a more aggressive approach by adding four mental health care providers, one of whom is at tournaments year-round. Services include strategies for managing the mental and emotional challenges of match play, handling finances, and transitioning to life after tennis.“Our job is to help the athletes be their best outside of the court,” said Becky Ahlgren Bedics, the WTA’s vice president for mental health and wellness. “We don’t touch the X’s and O’s. We’re part of the holistic development. We are there to help with the pebble in your shoe during a run. We say, ‘Let’s stop and take the pebble out before it gets to be a bigger problem.’”The major championships are on board as well. At the Australian Open, which begins on Monday, a sports psychiatrist and psychologist are available to players. So are health and well-being experts. There are quiet rooms where players can relax and focus without distraction. There are even soundproof, private pods within the player areas.Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, said the tours were taking the right steps.“I think the world is changing their perception of what mental health is,” she said. “We have that empathy when we see somebody who is physically hurt. Mental health is something that is invisible. But it is as strong, as powerful, as physical health.”Soderling doesn’t play much tennis anymore, other than with his two children. After multiple attempts at a comeback, each time followed by another panic attack, he stopped. Now he owns RS Sports, a sportswear company, and serves as captain of the Swedish Davis Cup team. He considers himself healed and will help anyone who asks.“As an athlete we’re treated to the best medical care you could have if you have a knee or a wrist injury,” Soderling said. “But it’s taken a long time to work with the mental aspect. It’s a shame it’s called mental health because it was not only in my head. My whole body was affected.“I’m glad to see there’s a better understanding of mental health today,” he added. “But it’s sad that it had to happen to so many people before it was taken seriously.” More

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      The Strategy, and Importance, of the Service Toss

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      Tennis players work for years perfecting the move, and finding the sweet spot can strikingly improve their game.The tennis ball ascends into the air and for a brief moment — like the one atop a roller coaster — all is tranquil. And then, bam, the racket, whipping through the air, makes contact and the action begins.The serve is the only time in tennis when the human hand, not the racket, dictates the direction and placement of the ball. And that makes starting with a good toss essential to winning.“You have total control of the serve, and so the toss is a key component,” said Craig Boynton, who coached John Isner and now coaches Hubert Hurkacz, who climbed from 35th to 9th in the rankings in 2021 as his service results improved.Aryna Sabalenka, ranked second on the women’s tour, noted in an email that “without a consistent toss you cannot have a consistent serve.”Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, whose strength enables a higher toss, serves against Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia during the 2021 US Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesThe toss may be the most underrated aspect of a player’s game for the pros, says the ESPN analyst Brad Gilbert. It looms even larger at the club level for recreational players, where many players lose control, often using too much wrist, bending their elbow or letting their arm drift. “If you lose control of your ball toss, you will lose your serve,” he said.The ideal is to hit the ball in that split second when it stops moving at the apex, said Jimmy Arias, the tennis director of IMG Academy, but there’s not one perfect toss height.Sabalenka and Taylor Fritz, ranked 23rd on the men’s tour, said in recent years they had started tossing the ball higher as they learned to use their legs to push off more, generating greater height and force.“You want to maximize the height you make contact with the ball on the serve,” Sabalenka explained. “As I got stronger I was able to bend and jump more up to the ball. That allowed me to toss the ball up a bit higher.”Boynton said that some big servers, like Andy Roddick, had a quicker motion and thus had a lower toss, while many Europeans learned a longer motion that required more time and a higher toss. “The height is partially determined by how long your motion is.”Sabalenka said players have their own ideal toss. “It takes a lot of practice to figure out what works best for you, your body, your particular motion, and your timing.”The goal, Arias said, is finding a motion and toss where the player is neither rushing nor waiting. “Serving is all about the rhythm, and the toss dictates that.”Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in action during his group stage match against Alexander Zverev of Germany at the Nitto ATP Finals tennis tournament in Turin, Italy, in November.Alessandro Di Marco/EPA, via ShutterstockAmong current players, Denis Shapovalov, Alexander Zverev and Federico Delbonis have notably high tosses. “Delbonis tosses it over the moon and has to wait five minutes for it to come down,” Arias said, which is fine except that he believed that when nerves creep in at big moments the higher toss and longer wait could create problems.Shapovalov, who has changed his approach several times, and Zverev have both often been plagued by double faults or second-serve struggles.“Zverev has to let it drop, but could go to a lower ball toss on his second serve,” Gilbert suggested, which would speed up Zverev’s motion and help solve his problem.But that would be a radical change, which may be necessary for a club player or someone on the junior level, but which is rare on the pro tour. At that level players do not separate out the toss for isolated practice. Fritz even laughed at the question. (To perfect his toss growing up, Gilbert would work on it walking to school and while sitting in a chair. “If you have to leave the chair to catch the ball then your toss is moving you.”)While Boynton said he believed it could be worthwhile overhauling a club or junior player’s toss and having them practice it separate from the serve, he would not make major changes at the professional level.Serena Williams, often credited with a “perfect toss,” serves against Belarus’s Aliaksandra Sasnovich during their women’s singles first round match on the second day of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Tennis Club in JuneAdrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“For the pros, it’s more about tweaking the timing and the rhythm of all these moving parts,” he said, adding that last year he worked with Hurkacz on not letting the tossing arm speed up, which helped generate a more consistently big serve.Redoing a professional’s toss can be “very dangerous,” Arias said, but added that if it worked the results could be striking. He pointed to Marin Cilic, who had failed to reach his potential until his coach, Goran Ivanisevic, redid Cilic’s serve in 2013. Ivanisevic, who ranks second all-time in percentage of first service points won, had Cilic toss the ball further out in front (and a little lower). In 2014, Cilic won the United States Open.A good toss is not just about height, it’s also a matter of location. Gilbert said that an “elite toss” hits the spot from which you could hit your topspin, flat or slice serve.He said Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras and Serena Williams were dominant servers in part because “every toss was perfect” and they hit the ball at 12 o’clock, with no sideways drift so it was impossible to read before contact. (Arias practiced with Sampras “a million times,” but could not read his serves.)“You need to toss it in the same spot every time and not give away where you’re serving,” Fritz said, adding, “I would only move my toss around because of the sun.”But the 56th-ranked Jenson Brooksby said that while a toss must be in the right area, he did not strain for perfection. “There is a margin of error that does not matter,” he wrote in an email.Sabalenka and Fritz said top players disguised their serves well, but Brooksby said on the men’s tour Roger Federer is best. Boynton also praised Nick Kyrgios, while Arias said Novak Djokovic was underrated, explaining that he shortens the returner’s reaction time by tossing the ball further out in front of him.“If you could teach a long jumper to toss the ball all the way out to the service line, then hitting the serve would be like [a player at the net] hitting” an overhead for him,” Arias said. More

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      Twenty Years Ago, a Tennis Comeback in Australia Like No Other

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      Martina Hingis was way ahead in the final, but Jennifer Capriati made history in the oppressive heat and won.The day that Jennifer Capriati played the match of her career was sweltering.It was late January 2002, and Capriati, then 25, was facing Martina Hingis, 21, in the women’s final of the Australian Open in Melbourne. The conditions were so oppressive — on-court temperatures reached 115 Fahrenheit (46 Celsius) — that both players slumped against stadium backdrops between points, even after bathing in ice during a 10-minute break between the second and third sets. They even took turns plopping their worn-out bodies down in a lineswoman’s chair.It’s been 20 years since Capriati came back from a set and 4-0 down to defeat Hingis 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 and claim the third and final major of her career. In doing so, she became the first woman in Grand Slam history to save four match points and win the title.“The way they both were hitting in that match was just amazing,” said Harold Solomon, Capriati’s coach from 1999 to 2000. “Jennifer was an amazing ball striker because she took the ball so early and she wasn’t afraid, even when she was down. She was as good an athlete as anyone who has ever been in the game, and that includes the Williams sisters.”The match would go down as one of the greatest comebacks in women’s Grand Slam tennis history. No woman since has saved four match points to win a major final.Capriati had her professional debut in March 1990, just before her 14th birthday and reached the semifinals of the French Open that year and the round of 16 at Wimbledon and the United States Open. By the end of the season she had won her first WTA tournament and was ranked within the world’s top 10.Hingis was also a child prodigy. She reached her first U.S. Open semifinal in 1996 when she was 15 years old. The following year she advanced to the finals of all four majors, winning Wimbledon and the Australian and U.S. Opens.In 1992, Capriati beat Steffi Graf to win gold at the Barcelona Olympics. But a series of events in 1993 and ’94, including a shoplifting charge, an arrest for marijuana possession and a stint in drug rehab, nearly derailed her career.But Capriati fought her way back, and in 2001 she won the Australian Open by beating Hingis, the world No. 1. Capriati followed that up with a win over Kim Clijsters in the final of the French Open and semifinal finishes at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. In October 2001, Capriati became No. 1 in the world.In the final Capriati came back from a set and 4-0 down to defeat Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2.Jon Buckle/EMPICS, via Getty Images“Determination and will were always strong suits for Jennifer,” said Denise Capriati, Jennifer’s mother, by phone from her Florida home. “She always knew how to fight.”But no match was as striking as the 2002 Australian final. Hingis raced to a 6-4, 4-0 lead and held a point for 5-0. She did so by using Capriati’s blistering pace to hit short angles followed by forays to the net and soft touch volley winners.But Hingis double-faulted on a key point and Capriati took advantage. She saved one match point with a backhand down-the-line winner and another after a 14-stroke rally. Two more match points went by the wayside in the tiebreaker prompting Hingis to toss her racket in disgust before both players left the court for the cool of the locker room.“At that point, we knew Jennifer had the match,” said her mother, who was seated in the players’ box. “She was better in the heat.”With high temperatures both players tried to cool down with ice bags and water during breaks.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesHingis had leg cramps and was treated after the fifth game of the third set. In the next game she served three inexplicable foot faults and handed the crucial break to Capriati.“I really don’t know how I managed to win,” Capriati said at the time. “I got my second wind, third wind, fourth wind, I don’t know how many winds out there.”For Hingis, who reached the Australian final six straight years, winning the title from 1997 to ’99, the loss was devastating. “It was a tough final for her to lose, and it’s difficult for her to talk about/want to reflect,” Natasha Marks, her representative, said in a text message. Hingis declined to be interviewed for this article.Capriati did not respond to repeated phone and text messages.After the hype early in her career, Capriati engineered her own free fall and then her own resurgence. The 2002 Australian Open was the culmination.“She wanted it so bad,” Denise said. “She had fought so hard and done so many things. She was so disciplined to come back. She was doing it just for herself.” More