The Times - UK (2022-02-23)

have endorsed hateful opinions but

he was one of the most beautiful

sportsmen to have lived. I would

have been on my feet supporting him

in the boxing arena, just as I would

have been opposing him in the

political one.

I feel not dissimilarly about

Djokovic. I happen to think that

individuals are entitled to decline the

vaccine, providing they accept the

consequences of those decisions, but,

like many, was troubled by the

Serb’s duplicitous attempt to play in

the Australian Open. I don’t just

mean the doubts about the positive

test he returned in December (still

not fully investigated), but that he

appeared unmasked in photos a day

after testing positive, then again at a

photoshoot in Belgrade. I could go on,

because the story revealed a serial

willingness to play fast and loose

with the truth.

In short, this saga darkened my

view of Djokovic the person. But

here’s the thing: I can honestly say

that it has done little to

undermine my admiration for

Djokovic the player. I know

that many tennis fans disagree,

but I have long been

transfixed by the mettle he

displays in matches, his

capacity to defy partisan

crowds and his serenity at

high-pressure moments, the

camera revealing eyes both steady

and resolute.

Every now and again, I go back

and watch the 2011 US Open

semi-final against Federer, or the

French Open conquest over

Nadal last year, or the epic

Djokovic’s views divide opinion, just as those of Ali, below, did — but there can be no doubt about their sporting greatness

T

here is no doubt that
Muhammad Ali was, at his
sporting peak, a racist. In
the 1960s, he described
white people as “devils”,
argued for a separate homeland for
black people within the United States
and spoke at a Ku Klux Klan rally
arguing that black and white people
could never live in harmony. “Blue
birds with blue birds, red birds with
red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles
with eagles! God didn’t make no
mistake,” he proclaimed.
Many people, then and now, could
never warm to Ali the athlete because
of these views. They regarded him as
so beyond the pale politically that
they refused to acknowledge his skills
in the ring and desperately wanted
him to lose. This is what you might
call the infiltration of moral judgment
into sport. The idea is that if you
disagree with a person’s politics at a
sufficiently strenuous level, you
cannot — in all conscience —
support them on the field of play.
I mention this because I noted a
fascinating debate, both on Twitter
and in the comments on The Times
website, after the return to
competitive tennis of Novak Djokovic
in Dubai. On one side were those
who said Djokovic is a disgrace for his
stance on the Covid vaccine and that
they hoped he would be beaten as
soon as possible. These comments
were often peppered with admiration
for Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer,
Djokovic’s rivals in the perennial
debate over the “greatest of all time”.
On the other side were those who
endorsed his stance on the vaccine
and were far more inclined to hope
that he progressed to the later rounds.
As one Times commenter, Steve, put
it, reaching for a comparison with
Eric Liddell: “All the haters on here
[will be] kicking themselves that they
were on the wrong side of history.
Principled sportsmen are always
winners in the long run. Take the guy
from Chariots of Fire who was
ridiculed at the time when he did not
compete on the Sabbath.”

As I read all this, though, I had to

confess that I find myself in a no

man’s land between these two

positions. I am near certain that, had

I lived through the 1960s, I would

have abhorred the political views of

Ali and would have sided with

Martin Luther King, much abused

by Ali, for arguing in favour of an

accommodation between white and

black people and the principle that

individuals should be judged on the

content of their character rather than

the colour of their skin.

Yet I am also certain that, despite

disagreeing with his political views, I

would have loved Ali the athlete. I

remember watching Ali’s bouts as a

teenager and being mesmerised by

the way he moved, his appreciation of

space and time, the way he leant from

the waist to elude punches. Ali may

Sport

Vaccine saga tarnished Djokovic

but I still love him as an athlete

Wimbledon final of 2019. I am not

sure I have seen a denotation of

sporting majesty quite like the cross-

court forehand, the ball making

music off his strings, as he saved the

second of two match points, Federer

bowing his head as he lunged to his

right. It is in moments like these

that sport morphs from a silly game

to a metaphor for struggle, rivalry

and artistry.

I love Federer too, by the way, and

suspect that I would continue to do

so if he turned out to be a secret

donor to a right-wing party in

Switzerland or, indeed, a left-wing

one. His politics wouldn’t alter the

thrill I get from seeing him floating

above the Centre Court grass, any

more than Richard Wagner’s politics

deter my appreciation of that great

composer’s music. This is also why I

disagree at some profound level with

trans rights activists who will no

longer read Harry Potter to their

children because they demur from

the views of JK Rowling. Are not the

magic of her novels distinct from her

stance on trans rights or, for that

matter, Brexit?

I accept, of course, that there are

circumstances when my argument

falls apart. I suspect that none of us

would purchase a painting by a mass

murderer or cheer one at a sporting

event. Sometimes, a moral position is

so abhorrent that it contaminates

everything else. But, speaking for

myself, Djokovic does not come close

to breaching this threshold. And this

is partly because, as a general rule, I

think we are too quick to “cancel”

a person because we disagree

with them in one domain

without appreciating what they

bring to another. Indeed, I

suspect this kind of

moral rigidity is one

reason why there is

such a deficit of

empathy and

nuance these days.

So, I make no

apologies for

continuing to

admire Djokovic

the athlete, and hope to

write a fulsome

sporting appreciation

if (when?) he wins his

next competition. He

is, on any assessment,

a magnificent tennis

player.

Matthew Syedyed

JUERGEN HASENKOPF/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Alexander Zverev and Jenson Brooksby
set a world record for the latest-ever
finish to a professional match yesterday
when the German finally clinched
victory at 4.55am in Acapulco.
The pair were still playing Monday’s
first round tie in the Mexico Open when
a doubles match on Tuesday at the Du-
bai Tennis Championships had already
finished. “I’m happy to be part of his-
tory,” Zverev, the world No 3 who won in

usual. The previous latest finish had

come in a match between Lleyton

Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis at the

2008 Australian Open which went on

until 4.34am. In 2019 Johanna Konta,

the British player, said it was “danger-

ous” for athletes to be playing so late in

Melbourne after she lost her second-

round match to Garbiñe Muguruza at

3.15am. That match finished so late

because of an earlier five-set epic in-

volving Zverev.

Dan Evans, the British No 2, said the

timings were why he chose to play in

Zverev wins latest match in history... at 4.55am

three sets, said. “I don’t know how

Jenson feels but it must be difficult.”

Play at the Mexico Open does not

start until 6pm because of daytime tem-

peratures of more than 32C. Zverev, the

second seed, and Brooksby, from the

United States, did not start their match

until 1.35am after the first two matches

on court had lasted a combined six

hours and 34 minutes. Three hours,

19 minutes later Zverev emerged the

3-6, 7-6 (12-10), 6-2 winner. It was liter-

ally a new dawn in the men’s game.

Late finishes in tennis are not un-

Dubai this week instead of Mexico.

After losing 6-4, 7-5 to Andrey Rublev,

the second seed from Russia, he said:

“That’s one of the reasons I never go to

play there. It’s a very late start. It’s up to

them, but I’m not sure you’d be too

happy if you were playing the next day.

I wouldn’t want to do it.”

Today in Dubai, Novak Djokovic, the

world No 1, plays Russia’s Karen

Khachanov in his second match since

being deported from Australia after a

row about his vaccine status and medi-

cal exemption for having had Covid.

Olympic figure skater in

positive test for steroid

Winter Olympics The Spanish figure

skater Laura Barquero has become

the fourth athlete to return a positive

test for a banned substance at the

Winter Olympics in Beijing.

A sample taken on February 18

during the pair skating’s short

programme was shown to contain

clostebol, a type of synthetic steroid

that is on Wada’s prohibited list.

Barquero, 20, finished 11th with her

partner Maurizio Zandron. The

International Testing Agency said she

has the right to request an analysis of

her B-sample.

Tennis
Rick Broadbent

the times | Wednesday February 23 2022 61