By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday January 11, 2022
Players are weighing in with diferent perspectives on the controversy surrounding Novak Djokovic in Melbourne.
And there's one thing they all agree on: it hasn't been good for tennis.
“It’s a nonsense battle - sooner or later everyone will have to get vaccinated,” Spain's Garbine Muguruza told reporters. “Yes, I am vaccinated. I know the requirements of the tournament, and I do not see why it is necessary to do it another way.”
“What’s happening is a show, and I don’t know if this is good for tennis.”
Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics says that Djokovic doesn’t, in his opinion, have the right to play in Australia.
“People’s health is paramount, and there are rules that were outlined months ago - namely that everyone should vaccinate themselves - and Djokovic didn’t,” Fucsovics told Hungarian outlet M4Sport. “From this point of view, I don’t think he would have the right to be here.”
Portugal’s Joao Sousa says that what has happened is not good for tennis, but he can understand what Djokovic is going through, but he did call the World No.1 selfish.
“Djokovic has his ideals,” he told Bola Amarela. “What is happening is not good for tennis. I can put myself in his shoes and understand what he's going through, I understand that it's what he believes in, but it's a little selfish attitude towards his colleagues in the profession because many of us — not me — also we didn't want to get vaccinated and we had to do it in order to play. It was the rules.
It turns out to be a rule that Djokovic managed to get around. And he was the only one who is not vaccinated to come here and compete in this Grand Slam. For all other players it is not an easy decision to accept. But I understand that he defends his ideals. We have to accept it and what matters is that everything is fine, healthy.”