A new departure from the frame and a new controversy: Novak Djokovic’s sentence after his match at Roland-Garros on Monday about Kosovo, “the heart of Serbia”, once again fuels the image of this extraordinary player, master in the art of controversy.
The quest for sound 23e Grand Slam on the Parisian ocher, a title which would represent one of the greatest exploits in the history of sport, did not extinguish this provocative fire which characterizes the Serb, with a career enamelled with polemics, misunderstandings, missteps and misunderstandings.
After his match won on Monday against the American Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7/1), the Serb, armed with his marker, wrote a few words in Cyrillic on the camera of the Philippe- Chatter.
Words as a political message: “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia!” Stop the violence. This exit from the world number 3 comes as northern Kosovo has been the scene for several days of clashes between members of the international force led by NATO (KFOR) and Serb demonstrators who are demanding the departure of Albanian mayors from the locality.
‘Not a politician’
The player then justified himself at a press conference in front of Serbian journalists. “It’s a sensitive subject. I feel an additional responsibility as a public figure and as the son of a man born in Kosovo to support all the Serbian people. It’s the least I can do. I am not a politician and I have no intention of engaging in debate,” he said.
However, this is not the first time that the player has spoken of Kosovo: in January 2008, after his first Grand Slam victory at the Australian Open, he declared: “Kosovo is Serbia. Serbia, supported by its Russian and Chinese allies, has never recognized the independence proclaimed in 2008 by its former province and tensions regularly erupt between Belgrade and Pristina.
The Roland-Garros ethics charter prohibits political or religious positions. But the FFT published a rather sibylline press release, without addressing the question of a possible sanction: “The debates which cross the international news sometimes invite themselves on the sidelines of the tournament, it is understandable”, simply declared the federation.
“Djokovic’s sentence is not a surprise, deciphers for AFP Lukas Macek, researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute based in Paris. Novak is someone who has ties to certain Serbian nationalist circles, and his positions often go in the direction of the nationalists. But on the question of Kosovo, even for very moderate Serbs, we feel that it remains a wound, a delicate and painful subject. »
Such a sensitive issue for Kosovars: a mural bearing the image of Djokovic was vandalized overnight from Monday to Tuesday on a building in Orahovac, a small town in southwestern Kosovo where several hundred Serbs live alongside Albanians, the majority, according to Serbian national television.
“I think there is a part of Serbian public opinion that sees Djokovic as a sports icon. He has a popularity that goes beyond political preferences. Afterwards, there is a bit of another Djokovic, who annoys some of his fans and who excites others, and this was particularly visible on the vaccines part, ”says the researcher.
“Provocative side”
However, his position against the anti-Covid vaccine cost him dearly, with several days of detention and his highly publicized expulsion from Australia in January 2022. An incredible sequence founding a conspiratorial stature for some.
“He mostly takes positions that are not in the “Western mainstream”. There is a provocative side to him, undeniably, analyzes Lukas Macek. His “Covid-Tour” organized in the former Yugoslavia in the midst of a pandemic perfectly illustrates these rough edges. »
His disqualification in his round of 16 at the 2020 US Open after unintentionally hitting a linesman in an angry move had already placed Djokovic on a shortlist of tough-tempered players, whom his many racquet throws had pierced.
Behind the scenes, his attempts to reorganize the circuit did not have the desired echo either. His personality, probably an enigma for many, “seems to cut him off from a popularity commensurate with his talent”, said a tournament director a few years ago. This judgment could perhaps change in the event of a victory at Porte d’Auteuil.