“Absolutely disgraceful; Using someone whose wife died of CANCER in a report to incite hate towards Novak Djokovic” – Tennis fans furious over biased media coverage in Australia ahead of the Australian Open

Tennis fans are revolting against the Australian media for their biased coverage of Novak Djokovic’s travel ban to the country.

Novak Djokovic, who faced a three-year travel ban to Australia in January 2022, is hoping to get the decision overturned ahead of the 2023 Australian Open. The former World No. 1’s visa was canceled after the Aussie government was successful in its appeal, which stated that deporting Djokovic due to his unvaccinated status was in the nation’s interest.

However, with a change in government in May 2022, and the relaxation of COVID rules thereafter, Novak Djokovic’s participation Down Under has renewed hope.

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison also suggested that the ban could be revoked in special cases in an interview with Australian radio station 2GB.

"[The ban] does go over a three-year period, but there is the opportunity for them to return in the right circumstances and that would be considered at the time," he had said.

The Australian media, however, hasn’t been kind to the Serb and has been painting him in a negative light with seemingly sensational reporting, and tennis fans have taken offense to it.

A media outlet came under fire when fans on Twitter called it out for using a man’s grief about his wife’s death as an excuse to attack Novak Djokovic.

“Absolutely disgraceful reporting! Using someone whose wife died of CANCER in a report to incite hate towards Novak who had nothing to do with this. In what parallel universe can you ban someone from entering a country while thousands of other unvaccinated do so daily??” one individual remarked.

Another fan called for an end to the country’s hypocrisy, which has relaxed the rules for foreigners entering the country, allowed one of their cricketers to play the team sport while infected with COVID and allowed an unvaccinated American swimmer to compete.

“Don’t embarrass australia again please. How many unvaccinated people are coming to the country now and no one knows, no one care. But 9news is busy asking grieving husband what he thinks about Novak playing here.” The fan said.

Here are some more reactions from fans:

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"The media has not been very nice to me as there is an agenda” – Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic spoke about his struggles with negative spotlight

Novak Djokovic, who recently won two back-to-back titles at the Tel Aviv Open and the Astana Open, to complete 90 career titles, spoke about his struggles with the media but remained firm in his decision to stay unvaccinated.

"I stay true to my values and to things that I believe in and I believe in freedom of choice and I believe that everyone should have possibility to choose what they would to do their bodies, so I made my decision. That meant that I am not going to two Grand Slams and that's fine you know. It is what it is. I will take the consequence of that but I will stay true to what I believe in," he said.

“Unfortunately this year it created a lot of negative spotlight. The media has not been very nice to me, but I kind of expected it because the media is not always so nice when there is an agenda in terms of strategy. So I have to just deal with it and swallow it, and go out on the court and do what I do best, and that's playing tennis," he added.