Martina Navratilova thinks Novak Djokovic should ‘just go home’

Novak Djokovic is still in Melbourne, waiting to hear if he’ll be deported or if he’ll be getting a chance at his 21st Grand Slam, but Martina Navratilova thinks he should pack it in now.

“The best thing for Novak to do, I think, would be just say, ‘You know what, there are too many mistakes, this is not OK,’ and the right thing to do is just to go home,” Navratilova, an 18-time singles Grand Slam winner, told Sunrise this week. “It’s just the right thing to do, but I don’t think he will do that because he wants that 21st title.”

Djokovic has come under fire for his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19, throwing his ability to remain in Australia into doubt. The country requires a valid medical exemption for unvaccinated persons to enter. Djokovic claims to have one since he contracted the virus in mid-December.

That, too, has been the source of controversy. Djokovic was photographed in public and with children the day after he says he tested positive for COVID.

Australian immigration minister Alex Hawks canceled Djokovic’s visa for a second time on Friday, though a federal judge ordered the tennis star not be removed prior to his appeal being heard.

Navratilova said she thinks Djokovic should set his beliefs aside to get the jab.

“Your personal beliefs have to be trumped by what is good for the greater good for those around you and your peers,” Navratilova said. “If I were in the same situation and I didn’t want the vaccine, worried about what it might do to my body, everybody else is doing it because it is the right thing to do and the country demands it.

“He had a choice not to get vaccinated and he had a choice not to play and he had a choice once he tested positive not to go out.”