On Tuesday, Novak Djokovic kicked off his 2023 season Down Under with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Constant Lestienne in the first round of the Adelaide International 1. It was the Serbian’s first win in Australia in two years.
In a way, it also seemed to be closure to the former world no. 1’s jarring experience of getting deported from the country a year back, in 2022, because of his vaccination status. Far away in Pune, India, a day prior to Djokovic’s 2023 debut, on Monday, his on-Tour colleague, Marin Cilic spoke about his return to the country and what it meant for the Tour to have him start the year in Australia.
“Disastrous”: Marin Cilic on Novak Djokovic’s 2022 Australian experience
The Croat, responding to a question from TennisWorld USA, stated, “Hats off to Novak because he went through a very big emotional difficulty in that January of last year and was definitely whatever it was, it wasn’t fair to him, absolutely not.
And that was disastrous for him as an athlete to go through those things it’s just extremely difficult”. For the 34-year-old, the way Djokovic went on to shape the rest of the year – despite having to miss the US Open, again due to lack of Covid-19 vaccination – reinforced his mettle as one of the best in the sport.
“(It) proves again that…
