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NADAL: Australian Open draw was ‘cancelled’ and then rescheduled due to Novak Djokovic farce
NADAL: Australian Open draw was ‘canceled’ and then rescheduled due to Novak Djokovic’s farce
A look back to 2022 when Novak Djokovic forced the Australian Open draw to be postponed.
Novak Djokovic caused the 2022 Australian Open draw to be postponed 12 months ago as the vaccine farce that affected his entire year boiled over in Melbourne. The Serb believed he had a medical exemption to play at the tournament and amid a high-profile legal battle, uncertainty over his eligibility to compete rumbled on right up to the start of the competition.
Djokovic remains unvaccinated against COVID-19 and only Australia’s more lenient restrictions mean he can play at the 2023 Australian Open this month. It was initially thought that he might be barred from the country for a further three years having been deported.
The 21-times Grand Slam champion’s vaccination status caused chaos last year and forced the draw to be postponed until it was confirmed that he would not be able to play. Tennis Australia initially planned to host the draw at 3 PM local time on January 13, but it was put back until later in the day.
In bizarre scenes, with the live feed already running, The Times reported that the draw had been “canceled until further notice”. The stream for the draw, which had started just after 3 PM, was cut.
The publication had sought clarity from a steward that the draw would go ahead as planned just two minutes before it was postponed. It was initially unclear why the event had been halted so suddenly, but it was later reported by the Guardian that it had been moved to 4:15 PM as the status of Djokovic was unknown.
Tournament rules stated that Djokovic would be replaced by someone who lost during qualifying if he dropped out after the Day One order of play was released. If he dropped out during the tournament, his opponent would be granted a walkover and advance in the bracket.
NADAL: Australian Open draw was ‘cancelled’ and then rescheduled due to Novak Djokovic farce
Then ranked as the world No 1, Djokovic believed he had a valid medical exemption to enter Australia. However, his visa was denied and revoked following a lengthy legal back-and-forth that also saw him detained in an immigration center.
Scott Morrison, the then-prime minister, slammed the Serb, accusing him of breaching the country’s border rules. Morrison, who lost the top job following a disappointing election defeat just months later, told journalists: “You either have to be vaccinated or you have to have a valid medical exemption and show evidence of it. It’s as simple as that.”
To give a further indication of how the the draw was suddenly postponed at short notice, I asked a member of Tennis Australia staff outside the room at 2:58pm if there was going to be a delay and was told it was going ahead.
— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) January 13, 2022
READ MORE Tennis Star backs fans to boo Novak Djokovic as Andy Murray also weighs in
Home affairs minister Karen Andrews added that Djokovic was banned from entering the country for three years. She said: “The visa was canceled by [Immigration] Minister Hawke. That cancellation was upheld by the Federal Court, so as a result of that, he will be banned from entry for three years into the country.”
Andrews said that should Djokovic return to Australia with compelling reasons in the future “that may be looked at but that’s all hypothetical at this point”.
Djokovic’s ban has since been overturned, with a new government now in place. The 35-year-old remains unvaccinated and will face trouble getting into the United States later this year, but for now, he can compete for a 10th Australian Open title.
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Max Verstappen has once again claimed that he is the target of ‘British bias’ in the media after watching the fallout from his battle with Lando Norris. The three-time world champion’s defending was criticised by a number of drivers, including Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen and Norris shared a titanic battle at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend, but the flashpoint came at Turn 12 as the Dutchman deployed a signature tactic, lunging deep into the corner to get to the apex first before running both himself and his title rival off the road.
Norris opted to keep his foot in and overtook the Red Bull driver around the outside, although this decision landed him a five-second time penalty that dropped him back behind Verstappen in the general classification. This sparked a major debate with other drivers – Hamilton included – calling for the FIA to take action and outlaw this style of defending.
Verstappen has been frustrated by this debate. Quizzed by Viaplay in Mexico on whether he’d like to see the rules changed, he replied: “No, not really. But I have the wrong passport.” Asked if he was referring to a British passport, he confirmed as much.
“Yeah, it’s the wrong country, on that aspect… with complaining” he replied. “I love my passport but on that aspect, I should have had a different passport, actually.” The Dutchman also complained of ‘British bias’ earlier this season following comments made by Adrian Newey.
When asked about the debate surrounding Verstappen’s on-track conduct, former title rival Hamilton was quick to point out that the Dutchman has been employing these tactics for some time, dating back to their no-punches-pulled fight in 2021.
“It’s always been a grey area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton explained ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix. “They probably need to make some adjustments for sure.
“Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which years it is. I mean, as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.
“I experienced it many times with Max, you shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”
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$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon teamed up with Chase Elliott and other HMS drivers in a lighthearted fun exercise for fans where they attempted to solve the mystery behind an old tweet from their current driver.
The anonymous tweet reads, “Don’t judge me, but I can’t wait to see the new twilight movie haha,” and it’s believed to belong to one of the HMS’s driver lineups, which includes Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman.
Jeff Gordan, who has a net worth of $200 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth), and HMS drivers tried to guess, but none of them were correct. Bowman and Elliott named Byron, while Byron went with Elliott, but it was Larson. He accepted that it was his tweet in 2011 and revealed that he likes Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight movie.
HMS shared the video of the fun investigative activity on Instagram with a caption:
“Hold on tight, spider monkey”
Watch the Jeff Gordon and HMS’s guesses below:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBjQ7EzP3A7/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e5182e01-3688-440a-ae00-0bf669973e15&ig_mid=01331E07-1F15-4C86-B3DB-7587302F0125
Three out of four HMS drivers are still in contention for the 2024 NASCAR Cup championship. Larson and Byron are in good position in the playoffs points table, with 35 and 27 points above the cutline.
However, 2020 Cup champion Elliott is in danger of getting eliminated from title contention, as he’s 53 points behind the cutline heading to this weekend’s Homestead-Miami race.
In an interview with NBC Sports earlier this season, Jeff Gordon spoke about the competition between their two best drivers, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, for the regular season championship. Gordan wanted to see both top drivers perform well and race aggressively against each other while maintaining sportsmanship in their chase for the regular season title.
However, neither Larson nor Elliott won the championship; it was Tyler Reddick who clinched the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship. Speaking to NBC Sports, the four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon said:
“I think it’s pretty clear at Hendrick how we expect teams and drivers to race against one another and how they’ve got to go and compete not only against their competitors but against one another.
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“Kyle Busch is an a**”: Brad Keselowski publicly chastised his fierce NASCAR rival in front of over 150,000 spectators
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski birthed one of the fiercest rivalries in NASCAR. The duo had multiple run-ins throughout their careers, but the seed of their feud was sown at the 2010 Xfinity Series race hosted by the Bristol Motor Speedway. In the aftermath, Keselowski publicly castigated Busch in front of over 150,000 fans during driver introductions.
Busch kicked off his Food City 250 from third place in his #18 Toyota while Keselowski began in 13th. However, as the 250-lap battle inched closer to its conclusion, the then-Penske Racing driver held the domination while the former #18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver fought hard for the lead.
After struggling to overtake for nearly a dozen laps, Busch, with 31 laps until the checkered flag dropped, lunged ahead of Keselowski, only to be wrecked from behind and lose the spot again.
However, the JGR driver quickly retaliated and spun out Keselowski’s #22 Dodge. The move propelled the #18 Toyota to the victory lane while the Penske driver fell from a potential win to settling in 14th place.
The bitter feeling inside Brad Keselowski surfaced during the Bristol Cup Series race driver introductions the following day. After Kyle Busch introduced himself, his fierce rival took the mic and blasted Busch with his “a**’ comment.
“Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing Dodge. Kyle Busch is an a**,” he said.
However, when asked why he slammed Busch, Keselowski said that Juan Pablo Montoya challenged that he can’t call the JGR driver an “a**”. It’s worth mentioning that the crowd’s roar on the Penske driver’s introduction notched 104.2 decibels.
“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy”: Kyle Busch publicly slams Brad Keselowski during their 2017 title fight
The bitter rivalry between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski was such that both made unapologetic comments about the other from time to time. Despite the latter publicly extending an olive branch to the former in 2015, their relationship remained sour.
Max Verstappen addresses ‘British bias’ at Mexican GP after Lewis Hamilton put-down
$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
