At the French Open, Djokovic storms the field and again in controversy

After everything Novak Djokovic had endured in recent years, the French Open finally began with the possibility of a drama-free Grand Slam tournament.

But three days after the Open, Djokovic has put himself at the center of the growing international crisis in the Balkans, where ethnic Serbs and Albanians have clashed in recent days in the conflict over Kosovo.

The message the Serbian tennis star scribbled on a Plexiglas plate on the lens of a television camera on Monday night — “Kosovo is in the heart of Serbia” — has sports officials calling for him to be disciplined, muzzled or both, and Albanian loyalists are calling him a fascist.

“A Grand Slam without drama, I don’t think it will happen for me,” Djokovic said after beating Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics on Wednesday night. “I think that’s what drives me too.”

The 22-time Grand Slam tournament champion struggled to find his timing early on, with gusty winds as day turned to night. But as the light faded, so did the wind, and Djokovic crossed and finished the stable Fucsovics, 7-6 (2), 6-0, 6-3, in two hours and 44 minutes. But as so often with Djokovic, what happens on the tennis court this week is only a fraction of the story.

The World Health Organization recently ended the Covid-19 health emergency and the United States ended its requirement that foreign travelers be vaccinated against the coronavirus, ending debate over Djokovic’s decision not to have the vaccination to get. He was forced to skip some of the most important tennis tournaments of the past two years, and last year he was detained and deported from Australia ahead of the Open.

He didn’t even have to worry about his biggest nemesis, as Rafael Nadal missed this year’s French Open, a tournament he won 14 times, due to injury. Djokovic continues his usual run into the second week of the tournament, although top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz could cause problems.

After Djokovic’s first-round match on Monday, like any winning player on the stadium courts at major tennis tournaments, he picked up a marker in front of the traditional on-pitch television camera signing.

The practice, which began in the 2000s as a way for players to connect with fans, gives them a chance to send an international television audience a typically upbeat message like “Vamos!” (Spanish for “Let’s go!”), wish a loved one “Happy Birthday” or write their child’s name.

Occasionally the scribble expresses a political opinion. In the days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian player Andrey Rublev wrote “No War Please” on the lens plate.

Writing in his native language and drawing a heart, Djokovic’s message followed a weekend of violent clashes between Serbian protesters and NATO troops who have been trying for 15 years to maintain the region’s tense peace.

About an hour later, during the Serbian portion of his post-match press conference, Djokovic, whose past political statements have been infused with Serbian nationalism, doubled down.

“I am against wars, violence and any kind of conflict, as I have always stated publicly,” Djokovic said according to the widely circulated translations. “I sympathize with all people, but the situation with Kosovo is a precedent in international law.” He called Kosovo, “our hearthstone, our stronghold,” and said, “Our main monasteries are there.”

Almost immediately, the statements led to the expected reactions to the polarized ends of the conflict: hero warship from Serbs and outrage from the ethnic Albanians who make up the vast majority of the population in Kosovo but are vastly outnumbered in a handful of towns and small villages . towns. The groups, Orthodox Christians on one side, Muslims on the other, have been fighting intermittently for hundreds of years for control in the region, which dates back to the Ottoman Empire.

Jeta Xharra, a human rights activist in Kosovo, said in an interview Tuesday that Djokovic’s statements represented a “medieval mentality” that she likened to thinking that led Russia to invade Ukraine last year.

“It is appalling for a man of his stature to use sport to force a fascist mindset,” she said.

The Kosovo Olympic Committee has called on the International Olympic Committee and the International Tennis Federation to take disciplinary action against Djokovic.

French Open officials, for their part, have chosen to stay out of the conflict. There is nothing in the rulebook that prohibits a player from making political statements. The French tennis federation, the FFT, said it was “understandable” for players to discuss international events. However, French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra called Djokovic’s statement “inappropriate” during a televised interview, saying it was “very activist” and “very political” and that he “shouldn’t get involved again” .

Given Djokovic’s recent and less recent behavior, that is not an option, he also said during his statement after his first match.

“This is the least I could have done,” he said in his native language. “I feel a responsibility as a public figure – no matter in what field – to give support.”

For Djokovic, the statements have had a greater impact because, with the war in Ukraine receiving so much attention, few outside the Balkans realized how high tensions in Kosovo have risen over the past week – as high as they have been since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

An international force has been trying to maintain peace in the region for decades. More than 100 countries have recognized Kosovo. Serbia and Russia don’t have that. Ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo last month boycotted local elections in the northern part of the country where Serbs hold a majority. This, they say, allowed the Albanian candidates to gain control.

The five countries that control peacekeeping forces in the region – the United States, France, Italy, Germany and Britain – have asked Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders not to send security forces after the elections to seize control of municipal buildings. to take. It did it anyway, a move the five nations condemned. The Serbs protested the takeover, leading to violent clashes in which 30 members of the NATO peacekeeping force known as KFOR (Kay-phor) were injured.

“Both sides must take full responsibility for what happened and prevent further escalation, rather than hiding behind false stories,” Major General Angelo Michele Ristuccia, the commander of the KFOR mission, said in a statement.

President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia claimed 52 Serbs were injured in the clashes, three of them seriously. He put the Serbian army on edge and sent his troops to the border.

Watching the events unfold from Paris as he prepared for the French Open, Djokovic looked for a way to express two emotions: a desire for peace and a belief that Kosovo is part of Serbia. He has often spoken of the traumatic experience of growing up in a war zone, with bombs falling not far from his home during the conflict in the Balkans in the 1990s. He has said that one who has lived through this experience could never be in favor of war and violence. He used those words in January when he was controversial at the Australian Open after his Kosovo-born father was caught on video posing with a fan of his son holding a Russian flag.

In 2008, when Djokovic was a young player breaking into the sport’s elite, he recorded a video expressing his solidarity with protesters in Belgrade after Kosovo declared independence.

“Of course I’m aware that a lot of people would disagree,” he said as midnight closed Wednesday. “But it is what it is. It’s something I stand for.”