Shock statement
Djokovic: “I was poisoned in this hotel”
01/10/2025 – 06:04 amReading time: 4 minutes
Novak Djokovic makes serious allegations against the Australian government. Nevertheless, he is competing at the Australian Open. He could meet a German there.
Alexander Zverev took this defeat lightly with a smile. Shortly before the start of the Australian Open, the world number two and Novak Djokovic played a show set under floodlights for the spectators in the Rod Laver Arena. The 6:7 (6:8) at the “Night with Novak” couldn’t dampen the Hamburger’s good mood. “He looks good, his serve is strong,” said record winner Djokovic, praising his opponent’s form.
The Happy Slam, as the Australian Open is called due to the relaxed atmosphere on the Yarra River in the Australian summer, has also captured Zverev’s heart. “I love Australia,” said the 2021 Olympic champion shortly before the start of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year on Sunday: “The vibe is just great, everyone seems to be very, very happy.”
However, the vibe, i.e. the mood that Djokovic spread in the interview with “GQ” magazine, wasn’t all that positive. In the interview, the Serb made serious accusations against the Australian government. Asked about the Australian Open 2022, when the record player was excluded from the tournament because he refused a Covid vaccination, he said: “I had health problems. I realized that I had been given food in this hotel in Melbourne, who had poisoned me.” And further: “When I came back to Serbia, I made some discoveries. I never said it publicly, but I found really high levels of heavy metals. I had very high levels of lead and mercury.”
The tennis star was not allowed to enter the country due to a decree from the Australian government and was therefore stuck in a quarantine hotel for weeks. Australia had imposed one of the strictest quarantine laws in the world during the corona crisis; unvaccinated people were not allowed into the country – this also applied to the then world number one.
At that time, a bitter dispute broke out between Serbia and Australia over Djokovic’s treatment. Supporters of the tennis player, as well as Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic, made serious accusations against the government in Canberra. “I told our Novak that the whole of Serbia is behind him and that our diplomats are doing everything to ensure that the harassment against the best tennis player in the world ends immediately,” Vucic said at the time. Even the Australian ambassador was summoned to Belgrade to press the demand for Djokovic’s immediate release from the country.
Because the Serb was not vaccinated when he entered Australia, he had to go into a 14-day quarantine, like anyone else who wanted to come into the country unvaccinated. Djokovic was a staunch opponent of Covid vaccinations and, among others, had spread conspiracy theories about the vaccines.
His father, Srdjan Djokovic, did not spare his pathos in the face of what he considered to be unfair treatment of his son: “Tonight they can throw him in a dungeon, tomorrow they can put him in chains. The truth is that he is like water, and Water forges its own path. Novak is the Spartacus of the new world that does not tolerate injustice, colonialism and hypocrisy.”
The majority of tennis players, however, could not see anything unjustified in the process. Rafael Nadal, who has since retired, said: “Only one thing is clear to me: If you are vaccinated, you can play at the Australian Open and everywhere else. In my opinion, the world has suffered enough, why doesn’t he just follow the rules? “
Looking back, however, Djokovic himself still sees his treatment at the time by Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government as politically motivated: “It was so political. It actually had nothing to do with the vaccine or Corona or anything else. It’s just political. The Politicians couldn’t stand the fact that I was there. For them, I think it was less harmful to deport me than to keep me there.”