Novak Djokovic Chose His Body Over the Grand Slam Record

Ben BeeriIn January 22, Novak Djokovic arrived in Australia tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at 20 grand slam titles. He had already won the Australian Open nine times, and another title could have moved him closer to standing alone as the greatest men's tennis player of all time. Instead, he was deported. Novak chose not to take the COVID vaccine, prioritizing his own health decisions over the opportunity to compete. And that decision came with a real cost. He missed the Australian Open. Rafael Nadal won it. Then Nadal won the French Open and moved two grand slams ahead of him. Djokovic was 35 years old and there was no guarantee he would ever catch up. But he kept training, he kept competing where he could, he kept moving down the same path. One year later, he returned to Australia in a hostile environment and won the tournament.

Then he won the French Open, then the US Open. By the end of 2023, Novak Djokovic had 24 Grand Slam titles and had separated himself from Federer and Nadal. That's why I don't really see this as a comeback story. Novak Djokovic never stopped being great. He chose his health, accepted the consequences, stayed on his path, and when the opportunity returned, he was ready. The moment wasn't taken from him. It was delayed. And the truth is, I remember watching this in 2022 and realizing it's like Novak Djokovic has a chance to do something really rare here, but he's really sticking to his guns. He's really adamant about prioritizing his health over taking the COVID vaccine.

And the amount of pressure that was put on us as a society at the time was enormous. Like, if you weren't taking the COVID vaccine, you were hearing about it from your family, you were hearing about it from your friends, you were hearing about it from your employers. And for somebody like Novak Djokovic, who has such a meticulous workout routine and such a meticulous health regimen and is very meticulous about what he put into his body, he chose not to take the COVID vaccine and he was villainized for it. People in Australia were happy to see him gone. They did not want him to win. They almost thought he was like a bad person because he didn't take the COVID vaccine.

And so much of that narrative spread, especially here in The United States. Says who? Anthony Fauci, who got pardoned by Joe Biden in his final hours in office? Pardoned? Having not even committed a crime? The same Anthony Fauci who pled the fifth over a 100 times during a senate hearing told us to take the COVID vaccine. And because of that, a guy like Novak Djokovic, who's had the greatest run of any tennis player of all time, was barred from participating in the Australian Open in 2022. Novak Djokovic became a professional tennis player in 2003 when he was just 16 years old. The really cool part about that is he trained through a lot of adversity in Serbia, which was Yugoslavia at the time, in a war torn country.

Having faced that adversity, kept growing and kept growing and kept competing. He didn't win his first grand slam until 2008. And that's when he started ascending from there. Around twenty ten, twenty eleven, he rebuilt his lifestyle around performance. Dietary changes, conditioning, recovery, and mental preparation became a part of a larger philosophy. Understand your own body and take responsibility for it. Then came his historic 2011 season, his rise to number one. His body became one of the most defining reasons for his greatness. The player once questioned for physical breakdowns became famous for flexibility, endurance, movement, recovery, and surviving brutal five set matches.

That makes his COVID decision that much more understandable. Novak's choice to forego the COVID vaccination wasn't the political position. It was consistent with a philosophy that he had followed for more than a decade. He wanted final authority over what went into his body. He knew that position could cost him history, and he accepted it, but only temporarily. In 2022, Djokovic publicly said that he was prepared to miss major tournaments rather than be vaccinated. He cared so much about his body and his health that he was chasing the all time grand slam record, yet he was willing to miss out on opportunities to pursue it rather than violate a personal health decision. In 2022, Australia had some of the strictest restrictions against COVID. If you're not vaccinated, you can't enter, and Novak was not an exception to that.

He had to miss the twenty twenty two Australian Open. He also missed the twenty twenty two US Open because The United States still restricted entry by unvaccinated foreign travelers. Novak realized that he was going to have to weather this storm. He wasn't gonna be able to beat all these restrictions from Australia or from The US, but he knew one thing that he could rely on and could control, and that's his training regimen. He knew he was great at tennis, he knew he was disciplined, he knew he was healthy, and he knew that that grand slam record was his. In 2023, Australia lifted the COVID vaccination restriction.

Djokovic returned to Melbourne in 2023, and in a hostile environment, he won the Australian Open, his tenth time winning the Australian Open. It was one of the most emotional victories of his career, and given what he had faced in the previous couple of years, that was tough. Like, what a victory to sit there and think about, he was deported from a country because he made a personal health decision. And then he shows up at a tournament that he's been very successful at in the past. He had won it nine times, and the crowd's booing him. People are viewing him from a hostile standpoint. They're villainizing him.

And he sticks to his training. He knows his training. He knows his floor. He knows how great he is at tennis. And tennis is one of the most mental sports that exists. Not only is it very physically taxing to where your body has to last through these four or five hour five set matches sometimes, mentally you've got to be there for every point, for every shot. You've got to get your muscles engaged for every forehand, for every backhand. Novak was the best. And not only was he the best, he was not allowed to be there the previous year.

That fueled the fire. And winning the twenty twenty three Australian Open really just cemented for him, like, hey, I knew this was mine. I knew this was mine all along. I'm going to stay on my path. And I feel like it could have been very easy for Novak to fall off of his path. Could have been very easy for him to be in a place where he's like, ah, they're not letting me play. Or let me get the vaccine and go against my beliefs and what I believe is best for my health, so they'll allow me to play because I need to chase this record.

He prioritized his morals. He prioritized his values. He prioritized what he viewed was best for his health. And he kept working on his game. And showing up in 2023, only showed greatness of how great of a player he was, it showed a level of mental resilience that we haven't previously seen, arguably in any sport. I think it was incredible that he showed up, hostile environment, won the tournament, came back, stacked up another couple grand slams, caught up to Nadal's record, surpassed it. And now we're looking at the winningest tennis player of all time.

And the really interesting thing about that is basketball's a team sport, football's a team sport, baseball's a team sport. Tennis is you. If you make a mistake, that's on you. If you lose, that's on you. If you win, it's all you. Sure, you've got your team of coaches and trainers and everybody who's there that's helping contribute to you being the best that you can be. But ultimately, you on that court, playing the game you've played since you were a kid in a hostile environment, an environment that you weren't welcome in the previous year, man, that's gotta be one of the greatest, greatest, greatest, greatest victories we've seen in all of sports, and it's really one of the greater sports stories that I've heard of.

And not only a sports story, a story of a man who stuck to his values, stuck to his morals, stuck to who he is as a person, maintained his character in a place where people were trying to push him away from being who he is, push him against his beliefs, and to maintain everything he maintained, and still show up with a level of excellence and the level of mastery that he's achieved in tennis, and go out becoming the winningest tennis player of all time. Hats off to Novak Djokovic. I love that he persevered.

I love that he didn't get knocked down after he was not allowed to participate in the Australian Open in 2022. The US Open as well. And at the end of the day, there's always an Anthony Fauci in our lives who tries to make up some rules that restrict us from doing something that we want to do or that we're meant to do. And that's not in our control, but we can control what is in our control. And that is keep your training, keep your health, keep your morals, keep your values. And when it is time for you to show up, show up, show up the way Novak Djokovic did in 2023 in Australia. And if you show up to anything with even half the intensity that Novak showed up to Australia in 2023, you're gonna put yourself in a pretty good position to succeed at whatever you're wanting to succeed at. What's the situation in your life where it may have seemed unfair and there may have been rules or something going against you that was out of your control.

And you chose to control what you could control. You chose to control what was within you, and you chose to show up the right way, and ultimately overcame what was going against you. Share below in the comments. I'd love to hear your stories. I'd love to hear where you showed up as yourself and you were able to overcome something that wasn't fair to you.