"From Adelaide? Ahhahah" - Stan Wawrinka seemingly mocks Novak Djokovic for his letter to Tennis Australia
Unhappy with the conditions in which players are being accommodated while quarantining in Melbourne, Novak Djokovic recently penned a letter to Tennis Australia with some demands on behalf of his peers. The Serb proposed several changes that he felt were necessary, but the Victorian government has since emphatically shot his demands down.
Novak Djokovic's move hasn't gone down too well with some of his peers either, and they have taken to social media to voice their disapproval of the World No. 1's letter. One of them is Stan Wawrinka, who has reacted with apparent contempt to a comment about Djokovic’s proposals.
Journalist Eric Salliot, in one of his recent tweets, wondered aloud whether Novak Djokovic's letter was intended to prove the PTPA’s ability to make a difference. But Stan Wawrinka was having none of it, and he let out a laugh at Djokovic making demands while himself receiving preferential treatment in Adelaide.
“From Adelaide? Ahhahah,” tweeted Wawrinka
Stan Wawrinka is seemingly unhappy that some of the top stars like Novak Djokovic have been lodged in Adelaide while other tour members like himself are struggling in Melbourne's stricter conditions. That said, some have also questioned whether Wawrinka is in a position to question Djokovic, given that the Swiss has been housed in an extremely lavish room himself.
Are Novak Djokovic’s proposals reasonable?
In his letter, Novak Djokovic had asked for an improvement in the catering facilities provided to the players while also requesting fitness material to be installed in their rooms. The Serb had even demanded that the quarantine period of the 47 players be reduced after conducting the appropriate amount of tests.
But in one of the more surprising proposals, Novak Djokovic had suggested that the players' lodgings be changed altogether. The Serb had asked for the players to be housed in facilities that had private tennis courts for practice.
While the initial demands do seem reasonable, the last one seems quite far-fetched. It makes little to no sense for dozens of players to be housed separately in luxurious conditions while local Australians have not been permitted to visit their families for months.
But even though there is a sense of logic in some of Novak Djokovic’s requests, his history with the pandemic is drawing him a fair amount of brickbats on social media. Australians who have silently suffered the strictest of lockdowns for several months are not pleased with Djokovic of all people making such requests.
Memories of the ill-fated Adria Tour are still fresh in the minds of many. The Serb had caused an uproar last June by organizing a tennis tournament with very few pandemic protocols, which eventually led to a slew of COVID-19 positive tests.
Novak Djokovic's proposals can be argued to be reasonable. But in the eyes of most Australians, the Serb does not have the moral high ground to be making requests from the Australian Government.