'Justice Has Spoken': Rafael Nadal Backflips On His Initial Novak Djokovic Comments
Rafa appears to have changed his tune a bit...
Rafael Nadal has done a complete U-turn in regards to his thoughts on the Novak Djokovic situation.
World No.1 Djokovic was recently successful in his court battle to have his deportation from Australia overturned.
It means the Serbian star can now defend his Australian Open title later this month.
When news first broke of his visa cancellation at the border and his subsequent detention at the infamous Park Hotel in Melbourne, a number of high profile figures had their say on the matter - Nadal being one of them, hitting out at his tennis rival for not getting the Covid-19 vaccine.
Well, now that Djokovic has been granted permission to stay Down Under, Nadal appears to have backflipped - well, sort of.
"Whether or not I agree with Djokovic on some things, justice has spoken and has said that he has the right to participate in the Australian Open and I think it is the fairest decision to do so, if it has been resolved that way. I wish him the best of luck," Nadal told Spanish radio station Onda Cero.
"On a personal level, I'd much rather he didn't play."
While he still seems on the fence about the entire thing, it's certainly a change of direction from his initial comments made late last week.
"It seems a rough situation," Nadal said.
"At the end of the day the only thing that I can say is we have been going through very challenging times and a lot of families have been suffering a lot during the last two years with the pandemic.
"I mean, it's normal that the people here in Australia get very frustrated with the case because they have been going through a lot of very hard lockdowns and a lot of people were not able to come back home.
"From my point of view, that's the only thing that I can say is I believe in what the people who knows about medicine says, and if the people says that we need to get vaccinated, we need to get the vaccine.
"I went through Covid. I have been vaccinated twice. If you do this you don't have any problem to play here. That's the only clear thing.
"The only clear thing is if you are vaccinated, you can play in the Australian Open and everywhere, and the world in my opinion has been suffering enough to not follow the rules."
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Tennis, Tennis news, Rafael Nadal, vaccine, Australian Open, Novak Djokovic, Australia, Covid-19
Max Sherry