Rafael Nadal, who had not played in competition since August 5 due to a left foot injury, succeeded in his comeback by dismissing Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis (No. 104) in straight sets (6-2, 7 -5) in the second round of the Melbourne tournament - a simple preparatory tournament for the Australian Open, in the same city in the state of Victoria.
After the match, the Mallorcan was obviously questioned about the setbacks of Novak Djokovic, struggling all day this Thursday with the Australian authorities.
Rafael Nadal's full answer today on Djokovic's situation.
"From my point of view, the only thing that I can say is I believe in what the people who knows about medicine says, and if the people says that we need to get vaccinated, we need to get the vaccine."
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- Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) January 6, 2022
As usual, Nadal was cautious and cautious in his statements, but nevertheless expressed his position quite clearly.
"I think if he wanted, he would play here without a problem," Nadal said of Djokovic, facing the press after the game on Thursday.
He has chosen a different path, he makes his own choices, everyone is free to do that, but there are consequences.
Of course, I don't like the current situation.
Somehow I'm sorry for him.
But at the same time, he has known the conditions for months and he made his own decision. "
The native of Mallorca is not unduly surprised by the problems encountered by the Serbian upon his arrival on the island-continent.
"What we are going through is very difficult and many families have suffered a lot from the pandemic over the past two years," he said in particular. It is normal that people here in Australia are very frustrated with this case because they have gone through several very severe lockdowns and many people were not allowed to return home. All I can say is I believe what scientists are saying, and if they say we need to be vaccinated, then we need to be. "
Unlike the Serbian, Nadal does not hesitate to put his own case forward: “I went through the covid.
I have been vaccinated twice.
And if you do that, you have no problem playing here.
On the rest, I don't have an opinion and I don't want to give one because I don't have all the information.
The only thing clear to me is that if you get vaccinated you can play at the Australian Open and everywhere else, and from my point of view the world has suffered enough so far that we follow the rules.
"