Remember when tennis was a civilized game, played by refined, well-mannered, decorous, genteel men and women? Remember when everyone wore white and abided by gentlemanly rules? Remember when you didn't need linesmen or referees to make sure no one was cheating because opponents called the lines themselves?
Not any more.
Now we have that boor Novak Djokovic raving in the public thoroughfare about not being permitted into Australia because he is not vaccinated. He has obviously missed the part about sovereign countries deciding who gets in and who doesn't. Tennis Australia, for purely money reasons, gave him an executive exemption to slide in in hopes he would fill the stands. So far, the courts have given him a hall pass, but the ultimate decision comes down to the minister of immigration, who can overrule the courts in this instance because, as I mentioned, Australia is a sovereign country.
The biggest spectacle -- apart from the Serbs marching in the streets -- was put on by Mama Boor, who claimed on television her gazillionaire son was not being treated like a human being and was imprisoned. She even threw in the charge that he had been "tortured". Papa Boor, shedding tears, agreed and together the two of them cemented the impression some of us have about Serbs and Eastern Europeans as being a rather yobbo bunch who view laws to be trampled upon if they don't like them. And speaking of boors who don't get sovereignty, the president of Serbia actually had to gall to call the prime minister of Australia to try to strong-arm Djokovic's way into the tournament! That guy needs to google info on the Commonwealth to see how countries work outside the Soviet block. Rule of law anyone?
I hope the government ships him back, but if it doesn't, I hope the more civilized of spectators don't pay to watch that oaf play. Roger Federer he most certainly is not.
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Read Cathal Kelly in 'The Globe and Mail' today. He covers it much better than I, but same idea.
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