Now Austria’s tennis star Dominic Thiem, who wants to make his comeback on sand in Cordoba at the end of January after suffering a serious wrist injury on Mallorca on June 22, has also spoken out in the “Causa Novak Djokovic”. The unvaccinated world number one cannot defend his title at the Australian Open, Djokovic had to leave Melbourne after a court order on Sunday and first landed in Dubai.
“I am not against vaccination”
Thiem, who is only number 16 in the ATP ranking, defended the Serbs on “Instagram” and called for moderation in the choice of words. “The way we are dealing with the situation around Novak Djokovic is bad. He is human and every human makes mistakes. But these memes and tongue-in-cheek comments that are flooding social media are disrespectful. The nine-time Australian Open champion cannot be treated like that. If you want to support Novak in these challenging times for him, click on the heart. PS: This is my personal opinion, I’m not against the vaccination, I just thought it would be right to speak out about a player I admire.”
Thiem himself caused waves to rise in Austria last year with his statements on the subject of corona vaccination. At a media event in St. Lorenz near Mondsee in September, he reported that he was not yet vaccinated and wanted to wait for a so-called dead vaccine (Novavax). Since his approval was delayed, the 28-year-old from Lichtenwörther had himself vaccinated with one of the available substances in November and would therefore have been eligible to start at the Australian Open. But Thiem decided not to compete because he didn’t feel fit enough.
By the way, Thiem played the final of the Australian Open 2020 against Djokovic, who prevailed 6: 4, 4: 6, 2: 6, 6: 3 and 6: 4 in a memorable five-set thriller.
Source: Nachrichten
