Novak Djokovic has taken some heat recently due to his unvaccinated status against COVID-19 and subsequent immigration issues as an unvaccinated foreign national in Australia. Djokovic has been able to skirt some of the local laws in the country regarding COVID and quarantining and is tentatively still scheduled to compete in the 2022 Australian Open that starts on  Monday. Djokovic has created a stir among the other entrants in the tournament, with Stefanos Tsitsipas offering up the following harsh criticism:

“98 percent of players have been vaccinated and did what they had to do in order to come and perform and play in Australia. One side of it is, yeah we’ve all followed the protocols in order to compete in Australia, we’ve been very disciplined in that part. The other side, I’d say that it kind of seems like not everyone is playing by the rules of how Tennis Australia and the government have been putting things. A very small group chose to follow their own way and it kind of makes the majority look like they’re all fools or something.” -Stefanos Tsitsipas

While Tsitsipas has a point that every player in the tournament field should be playing under the same rules, he is going overboard a bit here because Djokovic is claiming that a recent battle of COVID-19 is his reason for not yet being vaccinated. So, as much as the world tennis association and the country of Australia may want Djokovic and all others to be vaccinated, we need to be understanding when players receive legitimate waivers–which Djokovic did.

Djokovic is a nine-time winner of the Australian Open and is also the three-time defending champion, having won in 2019, 2020, and 2021. His nine Aussie Open wins are the most all-time for any person, man or woman. Second place on the all-time list is American superstar Serena Williams.

Tsitsipas is more famous for his antics than his play, as he made a name for himself in the 2021 U.S. Open due to his frequent, long bathroom breaks.