NOVAK DJOKOVIC: I WAS POISONED IN MY HOTEL ROOM
Novak Djokovic’s pre-tournament press conference in Melbourne ended in chaotic style, as he awkwardly batted away questions about his recent claim that he had been “poisoned” during his ill-fated visit here in 2022.
The unexpected allegations had been published by GQ magazine on Thursday. In a lengthy interview, Djokovic spoke of the way that he had been “put in a kind of jail room” in 2022, after immigration officials queried his lack of a vaccination certificate against Covid, and added: “In that hotel in Melbourne I was fed with some food that poisoned me.”
Asked to expand by the interviewer, Djokovic then said: “I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia… I had a really high level of heavy metal… very high level of lead and mercury.”
The subject was raised again on Friday in Melbourne by news reporters, but only at the end of a press conference which Djokovic had mostly spent discussing such uncontroversial subjects as his new coach – former rival Andy Murray – and his best memories of Melbourne Park.
The moderator tried to shut down a final question about the poisoning allegation, but Djokovic listened as he was asked if he had any firm evidence connecting the heavy-metal content of his blood and the food he was served in hotel detention three years ago.
“Look, the GQ article came out online yesterday,” Djokovic replied. “I think it’s a February issue, so it’s coming out in print version. I’ve done that interview many months ago. I would appreciate not talking more in detail about that, as I would like to focus on the tennis and why I’m here. If you want to see what I’ve said and get more info on that, you can always revert to the article.”
As he left the stage, a TV reporter tried to follow up, shouting: “You can understand that it would be a controversial subject here in Australia.” But there was no response.
The claim will no doubt spark plenty of debate in Australia, where there is already a sense that Djokovic’s deportation did not reflect well on the country as a whole. The idea that he might have been poisoned at the same time will reopen some of those wounds.
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Earlier on Friday, Djokovic’s friend and sometime doubles partner Nick Kyrgios was asked about the poisoning allegation. “I didn’t even know that,” Kyrgios replied. “We treated him like s---, that’s for sure. We shouldn’t have done that.”
The original interview also featured an explanation of why Djokovic had undergone blood tests soon after returning home in 2022. “Yeah, [I was] very sick,” he said. “It was like the flu, just a simple flu. But when it was days after that a simple flu took me down so much… I had that several times and then I had to do toxicology.”
‘The politicians could not stand me being there’
In 2022, Djokovic’s defence for being unvaccinated was that he had already contracted Covid shortly before his flight to Australia, and thus did not need a vaccination. It failed to convince Alex Hawke, Australia’s immigration minister, who decided that he was a risk to public health.
Speaking to GQ, Djokovic said that he had been deported for being “a hero” to opponents of vaccination. “It was so political. It had nothing really to do with vaccine or Covid or anything else… The politicians could not stand me being there. For them, I think, it was less damage to deport me than to keep me there.”
When the interviewer enquired whether Djokovic had ever caved in to demands that he should be vaccinated against Covid, he responded in the negative.
“I just don’t feel like I needed one,” he explained. “I’m a healthy individual, I take care of my body, take care of my health needs, and I’m a professional athlete. And because I’m a professional athlete, I’m extremely mindful of what I consume, and I do regular tests, blood tests, any kind of tests. I know exactly what’s going on. So I didn’t feel a need to do that. Also, what is important to state is knowing that I’m not a threat to anybody. ’Cause I wasn’t. Because I had antibodies.”
A spokesperson from the Australian Border force said: “For privacy reasons, the department cannot comment on individual cases.”
According to Australian government sources, extra safeguards had been placed on the food at the Park Hotel – the detention centre in question – a week before Djokovic’s arrival on January 6. This came shortly after local network SBS broadcast a report claiming that detainees were being given unsafe food containing maggots and mould.
The sources said that, from December 31, 2021, the Park Hotel had begun providing the Detention and Facilities Services Provider with samples from every meal service. There is no evidence that any heavy metals were detected.
‘I am pro-freedom to choose what is right for you’
In the same GQ interview, Djokovic also declared himself “not anti-vax, but pro-freedom”. Laying bare the details of his ejection in unprecedented detail, he spoke of the “scars” he carried from the ordeal, which began with an overnight interrogation at Melbourne airport and ended with his visa being cancelled on the fiercely disputed pretext that his presence in the country could inflame public resistance to Covid vaccines.
The passing of time has brought fresh perspective for the 10-time Australian Open champion, who regards his notorious treatment in 2022 less as a response to his vaccination status than as a politically-motivated show trial. “It was so political,” Djokovic told GQ. “I’m not pro-vaccine. I’m not anti-vax. I am pro-freedom to choose what is right for you and your body. So when somebody takes away my right to choose what I should be taking for my body, I don’t think that’s correct. I don’t feel like I needed one. I just don’t feel like I needed one.”
It would be difficult to exaggerate the febrile emotions that the Djokovic soap opera ignited in Australia during that period, or the demonisation of anybody who dared deviate from the state-mandated vaccination path. This, for example, was what Dr Chris Perry, Queensland’s medical director, told would-be refuseniks: “Life will be miserable without being vaccinated. You won’t be able to hide.” The rhetoric was so overheated that it felt as if the nation was intending to round up the unvaccinated and dispatch them to a modern-day lepers’ colony.
Except Djokovic has confounded predictions that he would be forever cast as a pariah. As he embarks on his quest at Melbourne Park for a record 25th grand slam title, he has arguably never been more popular, with his defence of bodily autonomy inviting widespread backing rather than scorn. The Serb never actively agitated against vaccine take-up. Indeed, one of the lesser-known details of this chapter is that he supported vaccination hubs at tournaments he ran in his home country.
His upholding of an individual’s right to choose drew particular praise from Kyrgios, his former nemesis, who said on the weekend he was thrown out: “How we’re dealing with stuff is just so embarrassing. If Australia had dealt with Covid better, I don’t think this would be such a big issue. It’s insane.”
Last of the ‘big three’ standing
A separate reason for Djokovic’s increased respectability lies in the fact that he is the last of the ‘big three’ left standing. He turns 38 in May, with time fast running out for people to watch a player who is, by almost every metric, the greatest of all time.
His latest comments on Roger Federer and the newly-retired Rafael Nadal were fascinatingly lukewarm. Indeed, he could almost be said to have damned them with faint praise when, describing his personal relationship with the pair, he disclosed: “It’s kind of going up and down, to be honest. I always try to be respectful and friendly to them off the court. But I didn’t have the acceptance early on, because I did go out on the court showing that I was confident and that I wanted to win. I don’t think that either of them liked that in the early days.”
As for his own retirement date, Djokovic acknowledged that his father Srdjan was ushering him towards the exit, given the fulfilment of his last burning ambition, claiming gold at the Paris Olympics. “He says, ‘What else do you want to do?’ He understands the amount and intensity of pressure and tension out there, and the stress that has an effect on my health, my body, and on everyone else around me, including him. That’s why he says, ‘My son, start to think about how you want to end this’.”
Djokovic was speaking in the latest edition of GQ magazine, released January 28.
2025-01-09T17:38:35Z