If Novak Djokovic was playing here, it's better for everybody, no doubt about that." "That's better for the sport without a doubt. "The ideal situation in the world of sport, that the best players are on court and playing the most important events," said Nadal, who is tied with Djokovic and Roger Federer on 20 major titles. Spaniard Rafa Nadal, Djokovic's biggest rival on court, said the Serb was not the only person at fault. "I hope that in the future he will be the best tennis player in history and that this will be only looked at as a setback on his path to be the best tennis player to ever play the sport," said Serbia's Dusan Lajovic, ranked 39th. "I'm sure that he will come back stronger than ever."ĭjokovic, who is not vaccinated against COVID-19, was granted a medical exemption to play in Melbourne but spent a rollercoaster 10 days in Australia before being deported.ĭjere, who lost to Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the first round on Monday, said "something went horribly wrong" and described it as a "true catastrophic situation". "When we get beat down or we are treated a bad way or how we maybe don't deserve, we just try to - especially him, tries to be inspired by that and gain strength from that. That's also in our Serbian mentality," the 26-year-old Djere told reporters. Serbian Laslo Djere, ranked 51st, backed the 20-times Grand Slam champion to draw inspiration from the episode. MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic has the mental steel to overcome his Australian Open debacle and come back even stronger, his fellow Serbian players said on Monday as the year's opening major kicked off without the men's world number one and defending champion.ĭjokovic, a record nine-times winner at Melbourne Park including the last three titles, left Australia on Sunday for Belgrade after losing a Federal Court appeal against the cancellation of his visa to enter the country.