"Tennis Australia misread the law, the politics and the public sentiment"- Ben Rothenberg responds to Craig Tiley's statement about not lobbying for Novak Djokovic to play in 2023 Australian Open

As per the Australian Open director Craig Tiley, Tennis Australia won't officially help Novak Djokovic's lobbying efforts should he attempt to enter the country for the first major of 2023, a year after he was expelled for failing to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.

"It's not a matter we can lobby on. Novak and the federal government need to work out the situation and then we'll follow any instruction after that. It's a matter that definitely stays between the two of them and then depending on the outcome of that we would welcome him to the Australian Open," Tiley said, according to Reuters.

Ben Rothenberg, a well-known journalist, weighed in on the matter in light of this, criticizing Tennis Australia for "misreading the law, the politics, and the public sentiment."

"A useful reminder that the whole detainment/deportation fiasco was really caused by Tennis Australia’s half-cocked exemption program, in which Tennis Australia misread the law, the politics, and the public sentiment. At least TA isn’t going to try to sway government this time," Rothenberg tweeted.

Additionally, Rothenberg rejected a fan's assertion that Djokovic would have been allowed to compete at the Australian Open this year if he was an unknown player ranked 80th in the world.

"No, if Djokovic was ranked like that he probably would have done what ~100th-ranked Tennys Sandgren actually did for this year's Australian Open: look at the exemption criteria, realize he didn't meet it, and stay unvaccinatedly at home," Rothenberg said.

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"The rivalry is very special; we are not giving up that easy, Nadal and myself" - Novak Djokovic

2021 French Open - Day Thirteen

In a press conference before the start of the Tel Aviv Open, which he later won, Novak Djokovic discussed Rafael Nadal in detail and claimed that the Spaniard is his biggest rival.

"Everyone is my rival. Whoever I step out on court against is my rival and I want to win against him. When it comes to who is my biggest rival, it is Nadal, without a doubt. He's still there," Djokovic said.

The former world No. 1 also stated that they have played each other the most out of any other tennis rivalries and expressed the hope that they will have the opportunity to do so again in the future.

"We played the most matches against each other of any other rivalry in the history of tennis. So the rivalry is very special and it keeps going. Hopefully, we get a chance to play against each other more times, because I think it's exciting for us but also the tennis fans and sport fans around the world," he said.