Pure selfishness from Djokovic, self interest from TA and incompetence from the Aus Government.
Seems that the French Open will be insisting all players must be vaccinated. Tis a bugger that.
Emma is at it again, 1st round Aus Open
6-0, 2-6, 6-1
Vs Sloane Stephens (former US Open champion).
As usual Stephens was up and down to much.
Novax Djoker newsā¦ has his sponsors Lacoste and Peugot to deal with. They want to talk to him about contractš§;
Amendment 5, Article 12, Clause 56
āIf any of the playerās personal sh!t damages our brand or reduces positive reasonable planned brand exposure, we retain the right to . . . . . . . over!ā
Okay, I made the last bit up, but heās in the dodo regards a good Ā£30,000,000 a year sponsor deals.
The pressure from them to get the VAX and play eveywhere that requires it, French Open etc etc, must be huge.
Shall we pity someone whose wealth is estimated at 220m EUR?
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Never a dull moment with Emma.
2nd round match against Kovinic, whoās never been past the 2nd round.
Still an excellent player though.
Emma developed a bad blister on her righthand finger, early on
Tape cumbersome. Couldnāt hit through the serve or forehand (main weapons).
Lost the first set to Kovinic. 4-6.
Figured out she could spin the serve in more, slice nearly all forehands!
Complete change of game style.
That takes a lot of skill to pull off.
Wins the second set 6-4.
Smiling through itā¦
Physio on now trying to do somethingā¦
Emmaās out. Could not raise her game enough in the end.
Major weapons gone it was a toughie.
Credit to Opponent who won through. Never easy beating an injured opponent. She closed it out well at the end of the match.
Medvedev (tournament favourite) looks to have the better of Kyrgios. First time heāll have beaten him!
Med has improved a lot since.
Kyrgios never puts the prep work in, you feel.
Hehe Med one game away now, and Kyrgios smashes racquet, 2nd penalty after audible obscenity.
Starts at 0-15, serving to stay in itā¦
Medvedev wins in 4 sets. Very businesslike vs showman.
Skip in his step at the end. Med can go all the way.
What the court found regarding the Novax case.
Nothing new really.
Djok lawyers were never gonna win.
It took four days, and now the reason is finally there: Thatās why Novak Djokovic (34) had to leave Australia!
The federal court in Melbourne announced on Sunday that it would take time to formulate the reasoning. Thatās how it happened. Now the 106 paragraphs are public. Key message: The motives of Immigration Minister Alex Hawke (44), who had withdrawn the visa from the tennis star in an individual decision by virtue of his office, are understandable.
Hawke had stated that if Djokovic stayed in the country, this could spur the anti-vaccination movement. In the verdict, it says: āA world star in tennis can influence people of all ages, whether young or old, but perhaps especially the young and impressionable people.ā
Numerous opponents of vaccination around the world had celebrated the Serb as a hero during the posse about his residence permit Down Under, which lasted for days - but not only opponents of vaccination were among those who found Djokovicās treatment inappropriate. The court now says that Hawkeās decision was ultimately neither āillogical nor irrationalā.
His lawyersā reasoning for returning Djokovicās visa also referred to the fact that Hawke had not obtained Djokovicās current opinion on vaccination, but was referring to quotes that were almost two years old.
Source
https://m.bild.de/sport/mehr-sā¦2.bild.html&wt_t=1642686282871
Politics, as it seemed so. Meanwhile they canāt get away with testing players and some positive are apparently on the court.
Rules are rules? Doesnāt seem so:
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128 women start a grand slam.
Ash Barty vs Danielle Collins in the final tomorrow.
128 men start a grand slam.
Rafael Nadal vs Daniil Medvedev in the final on Sunday.
Weāve had some excellent matches, some amazing points. Some controversy & some outbursts.
Who will win?
Thereās a commentator who pronounces her name as āass partyā and Iāve never been able to unhear it. Anyway, her and Rafa, for me.
Ass Party falling apart
Ash Barty wins!
Comfortable 1st set, came back from 5-1 down in the second set.
Won the tiebreaker 7-2
The nerves set in a bit, had a big wobble, but overcame it.
First Australian to win the AO in 42 years. Trophy to be presented by Wendy Turnbull previous winner back in 1980!
Danielle Collins has really done well though, after her endemetriosus diagnosis and operation last year.
An illness I know well, as our youngest daughter suffers from it.
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Evonne Goolagong (7 slam winner) presents the runners up trophy.
Danielle gave a very gracious, emotional speech.
Yvonne also presented the winners trophy! Slight change of plan.
Very fitting.
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Very good menās final.
Went down to the wire.
Seemed like Medvedev might run away with it after the first two sets
But Nadal raised his game just enough, and Medvedev couldnāt carry on serving as well.
Long match, came down to a few crucial points, as is usual.
Nadal won in 5, pretty gruelling sets!
He last won Aus open in 2009!
Heās now a double career slam winner!
Having won all 4 slams, twice in his career, so far!
Of course, heās won the French open 13 times!
He is the first to 21 slams.
Nadal 21
Djok 20
Fed 20
Thoughts now turn to the French open in May. Nadalās usual stomping ground, except for last year.
Will COVID vaccination politics play in again?
Can Fed come back to Wimbledon? Let alone win it!
The ATP and WTA tour grinds on.
Next week the Tata open ATP 250. Where the lower ranked players can exhibit.
There are 2000 points for winning a GrandSlam!
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Some great tennis from The Netherlands last week.
This week the girls are in Dubai and the boys are in Rio plugging away on the clay.
Then thereās this. The news you all want to hear. Novax Djokovaxš
The internet was quickā¦
Heās calculating on the COVID problem ramping down in time so he can play and no one cares.
Letās face it, so far heās held a supersreading tournament and pre Aus was either out and about infected, or cheated and lied / tried exemptions with Aus and ballsed it up with Insta, of all things.
His dad Srjdan - has opened his mouth again, and put both good feet in it!
Saying āThe French will bend to our will and allow Novax to playāā¦ hmm not so sure about that.
Other planet level delusional, there dad.
Love a bit of Novak
Not the best of timing ā¦
This is what happens.
Youāre off with injury, or cough, cough, other reasons, and someone on the tour comes back from injury a bit before you is played in and bites you.
Best of 3 ATP is more of a crapshoot than Bo5 ITF though, so these things happen.
I wasnāt going to mention it - but while Iām here, Zverev!
Banned from the tournament and probably further ramifications.
You just canāt physically and verbally lash out a an official like that!
Of course, if theyād had at least Hawkeye, or even better Hawkeye live (no line judges at all), it would never have happened.
Doesnāt make it acceptable, nor does that he was short in sleep from a 5am match finish the same day!
Ho hum