PHOTOS/VIDEO: Rafael Nadal: “Australian Open is much more important than any one player.”

MELBOURNE (AFP): Rafael Nadal delivered a telling response to a key Novak Djokovic question on Saturday as the world number fights deportation from Australia, saying: “The Australian Open is much more important than any one player.”

Ahead of the start of the first Grand Slam on Monday, Nadal was asked a pressing question.

“There have been a lot of distractions from all the Djokovic news. How different do you think this tournament would look with him in the draw and without him in the draw? What’s the difference?” a reporter asked.

“I tell you one thing, it’s very clear that Novak Djokovic is one of the best players of the history, without a doubt,” he said.

“But there is no one player in history that’s more important than an event, no? The players stays and then goes, and other players are coming. No one, even Roger, Novak, myself, Bjorn Borg who was amazing at his times, tennis keep going.

“Australian Open is much more important than any player. If he’s playing finally, okay. If he’s not playing, Australian Open will be great Australian Open with or without him. That’s my point of view.”

World number one Djokovic is still in the draw to defend his title but faces deportation from the country before then after the Australian government cancelled his visa for a second time.

The long-running saga over whether the unvaccinated Serbian can stay in the country has overshadowed the first Grand Slam of the year, where Djokovic and Nadal would both be trying to become the first man to win 21 majors.

Nadal said he respected Djokovic “as person, of course, and as an athlete, without a doubt”.

But the Spaniard added: “I really respect him, even if I don’t agree with a lot of the things that he did the last couple of weeks.”

“Honestly I’m little bit tired of the situation because I just believe that it’s important to talk about our sport, about tennis,” he added.

Nadal commented on the Djokovic saga last week, saying that while the World No. 1 has every right to refuse vaccination, he will also need to accept the consequences for that choice.

“I went through the Covid, I have been vaccinated twice. If you do this, you don’t have any problem to play here. That’s the only clear thing,” he said at the time.

“The only for me clear thing is if you are vaccinated, you can play in the Australian Open and everywhere, and the world in my opinion have been suffering enough to not follow the rules.

“He made his own decisions, and everybody is free to take their own decisions, but then there are some consequences,” he added of Djokovic.

“Of course I don’t like the situation that is happening. In some way I feel sorry for him.

“But at the same time, he knew the conditions since a lot of months ago, so he makes his own decision.

“The only thing that I can say is I believe in what the people who know about medicine says, and if those people say that we need to get vaccinated, we need to get the vaccine.”

Photos: AP