“It won’t matter if he plays or not!” John McEnroe believes Novak Djokovic’s unvaccinated status is irrelevant when it comes to the GOAT debate
Follow Us
John McEnroe and Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic‘s vaccination status followed by his participation chances has been the most debatable topic of discussion at all times, especially after he expressed his sadness in announcing his withdrawal from the 2022 US Open since he could not comply with the US mandates and guidelines to enter the country due to his ‘unvaccinated‘ status. He still remains unvaccinated and is firm on his stance on not getting jabbed anytime soon which resulted in missing out on two out of the four major events of the year which is the 2022 Australian Open where he was the defending champion and the US Open where he was the last year’s finalist.
His trouble over his vaccination status started off when he faced a major shock since he was deported from Australia even after landing in the country followed by a three-year visa ban. The 21-time singles Grand Slam champion was in hope for some exemption that may allow him to give a shot at winning another title this year but things did not go his way. He is just one major away from equalling Rafael Nadal‘s record of 24 singles titles but now, he has to wait for some time to achieve this feat.
John McEnroe in support of Novak Djokovic on the GOAT debate
John McEnroe, the former world number one and also a four-time US Open champion, has been upfront with his various opinions on the GOAT debate. This time, he showed another angle to the debate where he stated that Djokovic‘s absence at Grand Slam tournaments and possibly losing out on titles over his unvaccinated status will be totally irrelevant when there will be a discussion on the GOAT debate a few years later down the line.
He felt that people might forget his absence at major events but will rather remember what he has managed to achieve in his long career and how many titles are in his kitty. He said “It doesn’t matter in 20 years, they’re going to ask who’s won the most? It’s not ‘well Djokovic wasn’t vaccinated so he couldn’t play. Yeah but so could Rafa. He hasn’t played in the US Open for three years because he’s been injured and he didn’t defend his Wimbledon title a couple of times. And you can go down the list.”
Stay Updated!
Prateek Pradhan
(601 Articles Published)