Djokovic Storms the Court and Into Controversy, Again

Three days into the Open, Djokovic has put himself at the center of the mounting international crisis in the Balkans, where ethnic Serbs and Albanians have clashed in recent days in the conflict over Kosovo.

The message that the Serbian tennis star scrawled Monday night on a plexiglass plate overlaid on a television camera lens — “Kosovo is at the heart of Serbia” — has sports officials calling for him to be disciplined, muzzled, or both, and Albanian loyalists calling him a fascist.

“A drama-free Grand Slam, I don’t think it will happen for me,” Djokovic said after he beat Marton Fucsovics of Hungary on Wednesday night. “I guess that drives me, as well.”

Djokovic Storms the Court and Into Controversy

The 22-time Grand Slam tournament champion struggled to find his timing early on, with the wind gusting as day turned to night. But as the light faded the wind did too, and Djokovic cruised, finishing off the steady Fucsovics, 7-6 (2), 6-0, 6-3, in two hours and 44 minutes. But as it is so often with Djokovic, what is happening on the tennis court this week is only a fraction of the story.

The World Health Organization recently declared an end to the Covid-19 health emergency. The United States ended its requirement for foreign travelers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, ending the discussion of Djokovic’s decision not to receive the vaccination.

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He was forced to skip some of the most important tournaments in tennis over the past two years, and last year was detained and deported from Australia ahead of the Open.

He didn’t even have to worry about his main nemesis, Rafael Nadal missing this year’s French Open, a tournament he has won 14 times, because of an injury. Djokovic continues his usual march toward the tournament’s second week — though the top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz may pose trouble.

After Djokovic’s first-round match on Monday, like every winning player on the stadium courts at major tennis tournaments, he grabbed a marker for the traditional signing of the courtside television camera.

The practice, which began in the 2000s as a way for players to connect with fans, gives them an opportunity to send an international television audience a typically cheerful message like “Vamos!” (Spanish for “Let’s go!”), wish a loved one “happy birthday” or write their child’s name.

Occasionally the scrawl expresses a political opinion. In the days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian player Andrey Rublev wrote “No War Please” on the lens plate.

Writing in his native language and drawing a heart, Djokovic’s message followed a weekend of violent clashes between Serbian protesters and NATO forces who have been trying to maintain a tense peace in the region for 15 years.

Serbian Novak Djokovic has defended writing “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence” on a camera following his first round win at the French Open.https://t.co/aLg7sRbych pic.twitter.com/eVQMUuze96

— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) May 31, 2023

Roughly an hour later, during the Serbian portion of his post-match news conference, Djokovic, whose past political statements have been suffused with Serbian nationalism, doubled down.

“I am against wars, violence and any kind of conflict, as I’ve always stated publicly,” Djokovic said, according to the widely circulated translations. “I empathize with all people, but the situation with Kosovo is a precedent in international law.” He called Kosovo, “our hearthstone, our stronghold,” and said, “Our most important monasteries are there.”

Almost immediately, the statements sparked the expected reactions at the polarized ends of the conflict: hero worship from Serbs, and outrage from the ethnic Albanians who account for the overwhelming majority of the population in Kosovo but are vastly outnumbered in a handful of villages and small cities. The groups, Orthodox Christians on one side, Muslims on the other, have been fighting on and off for control in the region for hundreds of years, dating back to the Ottoman Empire.

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Jeta Xharra, a human-rights activist in Kosovo, said in an interview Tuesday that Djokovic’s statements represented a “medieval mentality” that she compared to the thinking that led Russia to invade Ukraine last year.

“It’s appalling for a man of his stature to use sports to push a fascist mentality,” she said.

The Kosovan Olympic Committee has called for the International Olympic Committee and the International Tennis Federation to take disciplinary action against Djokovic.

For its part, French Open officials have opted to stay out of the conflict. There is nothing in the rule book that prohibits a player from making political statements. France’s tennis federation, the F.F.T., said it was “understandable” that players would discuss international events. However, the French sports minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, called Djokovic’s statement “inappropriate” during a television interview, saying it was “very activist” and “very political” and that he “shouldn’t get involved again.”

Judging from Djokovic’s recent and not-so-recent behavior, that is not an option, and he said as much during his statement after his first match.

“This is the least I could have done,” he said in his native language. “I feel the responsibility as a public figure — doesn’t matter in which field — to give support.”

 

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