Novak Djokovic- send him home immediately.

 Novak Djokovic- send him home immediately.

Above all the fuss and furore it's come to this. Surely one of the greatest tennis players of all time has been sent packing and told to go home. Novak Djokovic, the Serbian magician with the seemingly Midas touch has now outraged the whole of the sporting world with the kind of appalling behaviour that some of us can hardly believe. Sometimes sportsmen and women love to court controversy. It keeps them in the public's mind, reminding them that they're still there and still adored by their fans. But this one takes the biscuit. This time Djokovic has pushed too many buttons and there can be no forgiveness. 

So what did he do to incur this disgust, this shocked opprobrium and general resentment from the global sporting community? Surely he hasn't been accused of fraud or embezzlement because we'd have certainly have known by now. No, this smacks of arrogance, a real sense of entitlement, and snobbish, hoity-toity superciliousness. Djokovic though is now a figure of vilification, the bad boy who will have to sit on the naughty step. His crime has been widely documented in the last couple of days. 

Last week he packed his bags in readiness for a flight to Australia in the hope of capturing yet another Grand Slam to add to his phenomenal collection so far. He was due to take part in the Australian Open and none of us knew at the time quite how vile a stink this would ultimately cause. But then came the news that dear Novak had yet to take what should have been the compulsory Covid 19 vaccine. But oh no. How degrading. How dare they force him to do something that he clearly had no intention of carrying out.

For Djokovic though the show had to go on. The superiority complex had begun to filter down to the game's highest authorities. No one tells a champion to subject himself to a perfectly harmless jab in the arm even if the rest of the world.- or a vast majority of the globe- has already done so. So what happened next? The Serbian bides his time, checks into an Australian airport confident in the knowledge that very few objections would be heard. Stop there. Maybe you've underestimated our intelligence, Grand Slam champion and tennis maestro. 

After much deliberation and careful consideration, Australia told him to go home, sling his hook, get lost, go back to Serbia and you're not welcome in our country. So sheepishly he puts his mask back on and before you know it, the tennis genius gets his marching orders. He was told to pack his belongings, go through customs, have his passport rigorously checked and off you go sir. You'd be well advised never to darken our corridors again. Who do you think you are? A serial Wimbledon winner. 

The truth is that there is now a genuine air of toxicity and hostility. This is not what tennis was waiting for after a lengthy absence from our observation point. Once Djokovic warmed the hearts of his idolatrous following, thinking he was the best thing since sliced bread. He was the finest tennis player on Earth, an immaculate fusion of wondrous technique, a man whose delicacy of touch on the volley and half volley at the net, was sweetness itself.

Here was a tennis player who had it all: there was the booming finality of his first service, a lethal weapon in every sense of the word. There were the miraculous forehand returns down the tramlines, the cut and slice of shot that had deception all over it. There were the vigorous rallies that lasted for the best part of who knows how long, the chipping and charging towards the net, the alertness, the incredible anticipation, the remarkable reflexes and then the returns of serve that whistled past his opponents. 

But now Djokovic has blotted his copybook. He's upset the Establishment, lost the respect of those who thought he had a moral compass and he's probably let himself down into the bargain. We all know that sportspeople are paid extortionate sums of money running into millions, their wealth obscene and totally disproportionate to the rest of the public who so loyally follow them everywhere. But there must come a point when attitudes have to be examined and mindsets are closely monitored. 

So the world begins to wonder whether there will ever any show of repentance from the Serbian who, in theory, still belongs in the highest pantheon of world sport. We can only hope that one day he'll wake up and discover that maybe he isn't the exception to the rule. The world awaits future developments in the Djokovic camp. This summer, you suspect, we may well find out exactly what kind of reception he'll get from those at SW19. At the moment the jury is out.