{"id":184679,"date":"2022-01-10T11:43:04","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T12:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=184679"},"modified":"2022-01-11T19:01:45","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T19:01:45","slug":"why-rafa-now-wants-novak-in-the-aussie-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=184679","title":{"rendered":"Why Rafa now wants Novak in the Aussie Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps Novak Djokovic&#x27;s greatest foe on a tennis court, Rafael Nadal, has pulled off an astounding backflip amid his rival&#x27;s visa battle.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/australian-open-2022-novak-djokovic-vaccination-court-case-rafael-nadal\/7748f28c-cd0f-493b-8789-bf5703021b40\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Nadal last week hit Djokovic with a blunt message\">Nadal last week hit Djokovic with a blunt message<\/a>, saying &quot;he knew the conditions since a lot of months ago&quot; and &quot;there are some consequences&quot; to not getting his COVID-19 vaccinations.<\/p>\n<p>But the former world No.1, who&#x27;s locked on a record 20 single Grand Slam titles with Djokovic and Roger Federer, has now voiced a dramatically different view on the fiasco.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/live-scores-news-results-2022-novak-djokovic-latest-updates-sydney-international-australian-open-qualifiers-list\/b91cd7b6-b28d-4dd1-bb85-25bd444c5337\" target=\"\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Australian Open warm-up tournaments, Djokovic drama<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/australian-open-2022-qualifiers-lleyton-hewitt-max-purcell-accusation-wildcard\/226fbd7e-75fd-4862-be6b-a8216ff2f368\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Aussie Max Purcell hits Lleyton Hewitt with ugly accusation\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Aussie Max Purcell hits Lleyton Hewitt with ugly accusation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/ashes-2022-fourth-test-scg-mark-taylor-player-ratings-usman-khawaja-scott-boland-alex-carey-exclusive\/654f2d0d-85c9-468a-a01e-a392af082221\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><strong>Mark Taylor&#x27;s player ratings from the fourth Ashes Test<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"725fce03-1829-4637-b69e-fb1ea7b1e371\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/725fce03-1829-4637-b69e-fb1ea7b1e371\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nadal&#x27;s change of opinion comes after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/national\/why-was-djokovics-visa-cancellation-overturned-by-a-court-and-what-happens-now\/ca36c324-8221-420b-9f1d-dbccbdf0b6fd\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Djokovic was successful in challenging the Australian government&#x27;s cancellation of his visa this evening\">Djokovic was successful in challenging the Australian government&#x27;s cancellation of his visa this evening<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Whether or not I agree with Djokovic on some things, justice has spoken and has said that he has the right to participate in the Australian Open and I think it is the fairest decision to do so, if it has been resolved that way. I wish him the best of luck,&quot; Nadal told Spanish radio station Onda Cero.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;On a personal level, I&#x27;d much rather he didn&#x27;t play!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The 2022 Sydney Tennis Classic will be held from January 10-15, with live matches, highlights, mini matches and full match replays on Stan Sport. New customers can start their free trial now by visiting:<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stan.com.au\/tennis?utm_source=wwos&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=tennis\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Stan.com.au\/tennis\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><strong>Stan.com.au\/tennis<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6290743181001\" src=\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2022\/01\/402881\/pickerimage.jpg\" alt=\"Nadal claims men&#x27;s singles title at the Melbourne Summer Set\" data-vms-id=\"ref:cky746wqm00ar0jr4rnuqtcxw\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;It&#x27;s sports, many interests move around it, on a general level, at an economic, advertising level. Everything is much better when the best can be playing.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>But Nadal did reiterate his strong views on vaccination.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The most important institutions in the world say that the vaccine is the way to stop this pandemic and the disaster that we have been living for the last 20 months,&quot; Nadal said.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"f68a7b56-54ad-4936-bfa9-98d59189bcee\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/f68a7b56-54ad-4936-bfa9-98d59189bcee\" alt=\"Rafael Nadal of Spain reacts during their singles match against Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland at Summer Set tennis tournament ahead of the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. \" data-width=\"2502\" data-height=\"1668\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/login?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\" title=\"clicking here!\"><strong><em>clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Perhaps Novak Djokovic&#x27;s greatest foe on a tennis court, Rafael Nadal, has pulled off an astounding backflip amid his rival&#x27;s visa battle. Nadal last week <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=184679\" title=\"Why Rafa now wants Novak in the Aussie Open\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184681,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184679\/revisions\/184681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}