Novak Djokovic as an emblem of personal and national sovereignty
Novak Djokovic was not always my favorite tennis player. That would be Roger Federer in his glory days. A big reason we watch professional sports is to marvel at people who can perform athletic feats the rest of us can only dream of. Federer could perform feats with a tennis racket that other pros could only dream of. Blessed with preternatural grace and talent, he made winning matches an art form and domination of the men’s game for years on end look easy. As a man of economic science I relished the economy of his ultra-aggressive playing style, serving and attacking with such pinpoint precision that he would often win his service games in under a minute. He was an assassin on the court and a class act off. He was my main motive for making a pilgrimage to Wimbledon nearly ten years ago. My wife, who was new to tennis when we met, witnessed only the last two years of his career but it was he more than any other player she found compelling to watch. He had a titanic rivalry with Djokovic where the latter took from him a great many titles, even at Federer’s best tournaments. Djokovic’s more workmanlike style of play seemed to me often dull and robotic compared to Federer’s aristocratic attack. The Serb’s comparative conservatism in his approach, however, served him exceptionally well in a match that Federer’s fans will forever remember as one of the Swiss player’s most excruciating losses: The 2019 Wimbledon final, which represented one of Federer’s last best chances to win a major, was a five-set contest that saw Djokovic defeat Federer in each of the three tiebreakers. Djokovic committed a total of three unforced errors in all tiebreakers combined, including the extended tiebreaker that decided the championship. In every match they played I rooted for Roger.
So how is it that I now revere Novak to the same degree?
The answer in a word, is politics. This is somewhat ironic because I have always despised the politicization of sports for its rudely yanking away the pastime’s function as an escape from such sordid matters. For much of my life I spent much of my free time watching tennis and none paying attention to the shenanigans of the state and its toadies. Then I got redpilled, which only intensified my disgust with such politicization because it is overwhelmingly of a leftist and globalist bent. Players and their teams who politicized tennis in this way I now view not only as nuisances but as genuine villains. But what about heroes?
Before I proceed in my account of my political awakening’s ignition of my Novak fandom I want to state emphatically that notwithstanding the necessarily subjective considerations made in measuring greatness in sports, these considerations do not include those concerning personal character. It is performance in the arena that determines his or her greatness as a player and nothing else. For all of Serena Williams’ tawdriness as a person she is indisputably one of the very greatest female players of all time. Our sentiments as fans, however, are heavily driven by considerations other than pure play. These considerations can include politics, and while I like to describe my political agenda as one that seeks to purge everyday life of politics itself, my politics are still a significant part of my identity (hence this org). Although my fandom of Djokovic derives much from his greatness as a player, this article is strictly an account of the non-tennis factors in it. Even before his taking the lead for most major titles last week Djokovic had already made himself a redoubtable contender for the mantle of G.O.A.T with his objective metrics alone, and this article should not be seen as an attempt to buttress this case.
Djokovic has always shown his love of his native Serbia openly and he is certainly not alone among players in outward expression of patriotism. This expression is not always direct but the context of his background makes it all the more poignant. Djokovic often expresses in interviews his pride in having to overcome in his childhood not only his family’s limited financial means but also NATO’s bombing campaigns. Each mention of the latter is an unmistakable rebuke of that band of war criminals. His autobiography Serve to Win echoes the same sentiments. Djokovic, however, is a hero for showing not only patriotism but out-and-out nationalism in his willingness to attack propaganda spread by his enemies. In his New Yorker profile he is quoted as an unbeliever in NATO allegations of large-scale atrocities committed by his countrymen against Albanian Kosovars. Although his comments may have cost him a fair few fans in NATO countries he, unlike so many other similarly situated public figures, has never walked those comments back, even though fan support is also something he values and the lack of it he receives compared to his great rivals is something he resents. He has always been committed to personal sovereignty and principle over popularity. His nationalism manifests in not just words but also actions. His charitable foundation, in contrast to those of his rivals, serves exclusively his own country. Considering how global of a sport tennis is Djokovic’s nationalism in his philanthropy is both striking and impressive. His love of his people is palpably reciprocated by them in the concentration of Serbian flags among his cheering blocks at his matches, the raucousness of their cheering, and the hero’s welcome he receives when he returns home regardless of the tournament’s outcome.
Commitment to personal sovereignty was something Djokovic showed at a stratospherically higher level in the face of COVID-1984. Celebrities were under higher pressure to vaccinate than the general public so as to influence the latter to do so. Djokovic is a global superstar and would have made a prize influencer for the public health commissars indeed. Djokovic, however, has long made abundantly clear his commitment to absolute bodily purity, both in interviews and in his autobiography. A switch to a gluten-free diet in late 2010 was followed by what is arguably the best season in tennis history where Djokovic won ten titles including three of the four majors and went on a 43 match winning streak. Although the stronger COVID strains had subsided by mid 2021 the witch hunts against the unvaccinated were at their apogee and in publicly declining vaccination, as well as hosting a tournament in his home country with reasonably relaxed COVID rules, Djokovic made himself a target of the commissars. Especially bloodthirsty were those of the government of Australia, the country that hosts his best major tournament, the Australian Open. The Australian government decided to make an example of Djokovic with a vicious bait-and-switch: Offering him entry to the country to play the 2022 Australian Open on the basis of natural immunity, only to detain him upon arrival, informing him that he had not had COVID recently enough to qualify for an exemption to their vaccine mandate. Djokovic was held at the airport for ten hours without his phone and rudely interrogated deep into the night and threatened with deportation. At first he was able to successfully appeal this in court but the Australian immigration minister overruled the court by cancelling his visa. Djokovic appealed this as well but lost and was deported with a four-year ban from the country. In the aftermath Djokovic was asked whether he would reconsider his decision not to take the vaccine. Djokovic was unequivocal: “The principles of decision-making on my body are more important than any title.” In the context of what was at stake for Djokovic this was a level of integrity of a Randian hero: At the time he was neck-and-neck with both Roger Federer and his other great rival Rafael Nadal in the quest for the all-time record for major titles won. This statistic is one of the very most important of all in judging who is the greatest player of all time, for many it is the most important. Australia was not alone in barring unvaccinated foreigners either, of course; the US travel ban was also in effect that year and the US is home to many prestigious tournaments including the US Open, which is also a major. Djokovic’s principled stand for health sovereignty had the potential to cost him his throne at the tennis pantheon but he never so much as blinked. Nadal would go on to “win” the Australian open that year, which put him in the lead for majors at the time.
Djokovic has rebounded mightily since. He would go on to win Wimbledon that year and would have regained the number one ranking had the tournament not been stripped of points by the tour in response the the All-England Club’s outrageous decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players in yet another instance of globalism’s ravaging politicization of sport. His ban from Australia was reversed this year, allowing him to storm to victory through a hamstring injury both in Adelaide and at the Australian Open in Melbourne, his tenth win at the Grand Slam down under. Icing on the cake was none other than Bill Gates having been in attendance who was forced to watch as the paragon of defiance of his maniacal scam lift the trophy and deliver a victory speech that must have been seared Gates’ twisted soul in both its graciousness and gratitude. His victory in Melbourne gives him the most majors all time at 22. Officially Nadal also has 22 including the grossly tainted 2022 Australian Open, but had Djokovic not been banned that year the tally would likely now be 23-21 in the latter’s favor. Roger Federer retired in the fall of 2022 so it is now up to Djokovic alone to defend claim to the title of greatest of all time from the leftist establishment darling represented by Nadal. The US travel ban remains in effect for now but no matter how many more titles the Djokovic wins, he has already won a permanent place in my heart as a hero for his sterling defense of sovereignty, both of body and country of birth. Whatever my future progeny get out of tennis, one thing I will make sure of is that they recognize that this is why Novak Djokovic is one of the greatest men of our age.
