The tennis season of the new year of 2022 officially kicked off after the end of the Christmas holiday in the West and the New Year's Eve. However, along with the start of the new season, in addition to the speculation and prediction of the new year in the tennis circle, there is also the third year of the constant fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic that lingers around the world.
Tournaments such as the Melbourne leg of the Australian Open series of warm-up matches and the ATP Cup have come to an end. Unfortunately, not long ago, the Abu Dhabi Invitational Tournament was subject to the spread of infection of the new crown virus, and the lineup was changed again and again, and it was not expected that Australia's strict epidemic prevention policy would add off-field interference factors to the game, and recently djokovic, the world number one in the men's singles, encountered such trouble: the participation required vaccination certificate, and the medical exemption was cancelled. Of course, the author will first talk about the relationship between the epidemic prevention and control and the Grand Slam tournament mentioned in the title, and then discuss djokovic's participation.
Referring to the new crown pneumonia epidemic, let us turn the time back to the end of 2019 more than two years ago, when the unexplained fever infection virus was first discovered, the tennis world was still in a relatively peaceful off-season, the Shenzhen year-end 10-year contract that just opened the WTA in 2019, the women's singles world first laughed at the highest championship prize money in a single event, the new generation of ATP emerged, and Tsitsipas won the championship again after Dimitrov in 2017.
The time came to the beginning of 2020, when the new crown virus began to spread in the country, the Australian Open began as scheduled. At that time, the World Health Organization had not yet recognized the new crown virus as a public health event of the global pandemic, the world was in a window period or an empty window period to deal with the epidemic, when the outbreak of influenza virus in the United States on the other side of the ocean, some analysts believed that there was also virus transmission in European and American societies at that time, but it was misdiagnosed as influenza.
The next few months became a suspension period, starting with the North American Sunshine Doubles, with players training and qualifying the day before, and the news the next day that the tournament was cancelled due to the epidemic. In a special case, in the final stage of an ATP Challenge in Italy, two players' requests for an empty match were still rejected, and the two finally received runner-up points and bonuses respectively.
The long five-month suspension period is a kind of torment for players and events, and a large number of players have lost their sources of income and are struggling to survive, which has led to a series of controversial issues such as freezing world rankings and issuing rescue subsidies.
With the resumption of events in August, the arrangement of the Grand Slam tournament as the benchmark of the tennis tour is worth paying attention to: the Australian Open at the beginning of 2020 has not been affected by the epidemic because of its early time; the French Open at the turn of May and June has unilaterally announced the postponement of the postponement of the offseason, which has triggered controversy with the timing of other tour tournaments, and even if it is held in November, it is also facing the test of low temperatures; the Wimbledon that starts in July is obviously not as willful and not so lucky as the French Open on clay. The lush period of the grassland is only impossible to start in the summer when the grass and trees are withering in the autumn and winter, so the British clubs that insure a lot of insurance every year announce the cancellation of the event, although they lost a series of benefits brought by the event but lost the harvest of the East, because the insurance took effect The organizing committee got a large amount of insurance policy payments. The U.S. Open happened to be stuck in the critical period of the event's recovery, and Flushing Park also made a cameo appearance as a square cabin hospital during the outbreak of the epidemic. In view of the severity of the epidemic in the United States and several rounds of outbreaks, Arthur Ashe Stadium had to use the method of empty matches, and the players were required to enter the safety bubble to prevent excessive contact.
It can be said that the Grand Slams of the epidemic year have their own helplessness, the French Open postponed Wimbledon to cancel the US Open empty field, a series of requirements such as canceling the handshake to change the touch racket, canceling the signature group photo link and other requirements of the rules emerge in an endless stream, although on the one hand for the epidemic prevention and control to reduce the burden, but on the other hand, the heat and efficiency of tennis are greatly reduced, as can be seen from the reduction of the prize money of the event.
If the helpless situation at the beginning of the outbreak is still understandable, then the real test of the event in 2021 after the normalization of epidemic prevention and control has just begun.
Last year's tour events have all been tested in the shadow of the epidemic, and even innovatively appeared in singapore for a single year event, and the WTA year-end finals from Shenzhen to Guadalajara, Mexico. The four Grand Slams temporarily regained some popularity, the French Open was held as scheduled, Wimbledon lost the protection of high-priced insurance to restart the tournament, and the US Open allowed spectators to enter the stadium as usual. However, comparing the performance of the Australian Open in the past two years, it is inevitable that the performance of the Australian Open is somewhat unsatisfactory: last year's pre-match quarantine policy was complained about by many players, providing a more comfortable environment for big-name players, and the hotel environment for ordinary players was poor, because the epidemic repeatedly held from the fourth round to the 1/4 final, and the spectators who were watching the game the day before had to leave the game halfway and return home at 12 midnight; this year, the contradictions around epidemic prevention and competition once again broke out in the men's singles world number one.
Subject to the increased difficulty of holding events affected by the epidemic, such as the Grand Slam, a large-scale event with 128 signatures, the activities of hundreds of player referees and organizing committees are indeed difficult, coupled with the stadium that can accommodate tens of thousands of spectators, it is understandable to take strict epidemic prevention measures to maintain the normal operation of the event and prevent the epidemic. But the back-and-forth between policymaking and rule enforcement leaves one speechless. There is no doubt that because the epidemic has already spread to all aspects of the world, such an embarrassing situation will not be improved in the short term. As the highest glory of the tennis world, how to find a balance between promoting the smooth operation of the event and the accurate prevention and control will be an important issue in the future.
The words are divided into two ends, the recent news of the men's singles world's no. 1 Australian Open participation that has repeatedly dominated the screen has become a major event in the tennis circle during this time, and the debate around the epidemic prevention and control and rules has intensified, from a simple participation statement to a series of off-court interference factors mixed with the epidemic, politics and law, which have complicated the original simple problem.
Similarly, we set the time back to the Davis Cup of the year, the world number one after the END OFP year-end finals journey did not rest, non-stop participation in the team competition for the country, after the game Djokovic was not very active in this year's Australian Open intentions to participate in the outside world caused a lot of speculation. Then the Australian Open announced that the participating players need to provide proof of vaccination against the new crown vaccine, and the strict restrictions made a number of players prohibitive, the players represented by Tim and Pliskova announced their withdrawal from the competition, and the older veteran stars Federer and Serena Williams were also absent due to their status and injuries. Djokovic is still non-committal about the Australian Open, and he is also secretive about the vaccination requirements of the game.
At the beginning of the new year, Djokovic announced his participation in the 2022 Australian Open, taking on a new historical legend of 21 Grand Slams. Subsequently, in response to the contradiction between the hard indicators required for vaccination at the competition and the fact that it has not been vaccinated, the world's first once again claimed that it had received medical exemption from the organizing committee. However, the media did not look away from the Serbs. Soon After Australia announced the cancellation of Djokovic's visa due to unvaccinated, the ninth champion of the Australian Open once faced the embarrassing situation of being repatriated and unable to compete. For a while, the Deyo team was in a hurry, so as to enter the appeal channel to fight for rights and interests, and there were even reports of the serious consequences of not entering the country for three years.
Now, let's look at the rights and wrongs of each side from different perspectives: First, the Djokovic side has been silent about participation in competitions and vaccinations. Alternatively, if the participation plan is announced early in the morning, it is not better to take other ways to reasonably comply with the unvaccinated competition, which avoids distraction and does not affect the preparation plan. Now faced with the situation that the initiative to participate or not is not in such a passive situation in their own hands, the information control ability of the Deyo team obviously needs to be strengthened. Secondly, regarding vaccination, considering that Djokovic had a gluten food allergy, it is also reasonable to have doubts about the side effects of the vaccine, and the recently announced that Djokovic was re-infected with the new crown virus in December, and the medical exemption for his vaccination is also logical. What has to be explained here is that vaccination is voluntary vaccination by players and even foreign citizens in combination with their own conditions, and cannot be required to do so because of the high vaccination rate at home and Australia's strict epidemic prevention policy, the vaccine is not 100% immune to the virus, the news of infection after vaccination is not uncommon, the vaccine is not completely harmless, and the news of side effects after vaccination is also looming. Therefore, the criticism of non-compliance for not vaccinating and not meeting the requirements of the Australian Open is reasonable, but it is a bit far-fetched to accuse Djokovic of knowing the law.
In addition, the Australian Open organizing committee appeared relatively weak in this incident. On the one hand, he negotiated medical exemptions with the players, but on the other hand, he did not communicate with the Victorian government and even the Australian government in a timely manner about the relevant matters of the epidemic prevention policy, resulting in Deyo traveling thousands of miles to Melbourne but being locked up in a small black house because he did not meet the epidemic prevention regulations and sent to a refugee isolation hotel. Australian Prime Minister Morrison also took advantage of the problem, in the face of sluggish support and the upcoming election, Morrison took the situation of Deyo unvaccinated, showing off his determination to prevent the epidemic to the public in exchange for support. This is a vivid portrayal of politics involved in sports, for which the Serbian president and people have had to fight to support their national treasure players. If people who have nothing to do with politics and sports continue to cover their ears and steal the bell, you can recall the women's relay competition at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, where the Chinese team and the Canadian team tied for 8th and finally because the United States complained that Brazil affected its performance and the individual replay was squeezed out of the Chinese team's final right to participate in the first place. It can be said that the Australian Open Organizing Committee and the Australian Prime Minister have earned enough eyeballs with this matter, which can't help but remind people of the 2017 French Open Organizing Committee live announcing that they will not issue wild cards to Sharapova who returned from suspension, anyway, the consumption of players is beneficial and harmless, completely disregarding the public opinion pressure and external interference borne by players in the center of the storm.
Finally, when a series of follow-up events such as whether or not to participate in the competition, medical exemptions, visa issues, appeal hearings, and marches of solidarity are generally snowballing, the author wants to accuse which is right or wrong, which seems childish and funny. It is normal to have different positions, different views, and different views. Being in the blind box of the epidemic and the daily mutation of the marquee, it is necessary for all governments to overcome the difficulties of the times, actively prevent and control the epidemic, and the medical community will delve into research and development of curative drugs to fight the virus as soon as possible. As a fan of Djokovic, rationally maintain their own love beans, and others into the argument will only lose their own value to provoke their own unhappiness, after all, the world has nothing to do, mediocre people disturb themselves; and as a general public watching tennis, need to improve their own cognition, selective belief and reasonable doubt, do not listen to the wind is the rain blindly follow the trend, can not do reasonable evaluation can be a quiet melon eating masses, let tennis return to tennis. Perhaps it is not only the Grand Slam that needs to fight a protracted battle against the epidemic in the future, but also the rumors from public opinion that require the common restraint of the public. (Source: Tennis House Author: Gangdong Great White Fish)