WIMBLEDON — Novak Djokovic says he “weathered the storm” of his Australian Open debacle to win Wimbledon, but faces yet more emotional turmoil as he waits for “good news” from the United States government that will allow him to play the US Open next month.
Under current rules, Djokovic will not be allowed to enter the US because he is not vaccinated, meaning he is currently unable to take part in the next grand slam in New York.
He will also, as things stand, not be able to play the Australian Open either. He is subject to a three-year ban from applying for a visa due to the legal battle last year that ended with him being deported in January.
“That [deportation] has caused turbulence inside of me. I just needed time to weather the storm,” said Djokovic.
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“At one point I realised it’s just going to take time, and that’s it, time for me to regroup, to get into optimal balanced state on the court, off the court.
“I liked my chance coming into Wimbledon. As I always am, I’m very inspired to play my best tennis in London.”
Not everyone expected him to come back from Melbourne so quickly and win his 21st grand slam by beating Nick Kyrgios.
“For some people, they don’t recover. They will never play tennis,” his coach Goran Ivanisevic said.
“This was a big shock. Was shock for me, and I was there. I was free. Imagine for him.
“Unbelievable how he recovered and how he got through that. For me, it’s really heroic because it was not easy to digest all these things and come back to play tennis.”
Djokovic’s only certainty for the rest of the summer, though, is that he will take several weeks off to rest after an “exhausting” run of tournaments. While the rest of the tour heads to the US for tournaments in Atlanta, Washington, Cincinnati and ultimately New York, the seven-time Wimbledon champion will be monitoring the political situation in America, hoping for a stroke of good luck.
“I’ll wait hopefully for some good news from USA because I would really love to go there,” Djokovic added.
“That would be probably the next big tournament, the next big swing, playing a tournament or two before US Open and US Open.”
He also said: “I’m not vaccinated and I’m not planning to get vaccinated so the only good news I can have is them removing the mandate.
“I don’t think exemption [as he was initially granted in Australia] is realistically possible.”
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