Novak Djokovic is still refusing to talk about the
Australian Open and whether he will play or not with the Serbian media reporting that he will play.
Djokovic pulled out of the ATP Cup today presumably because he is not vaccinated which is something the Serbian media reported a few days ago. Yesterday they reported that Djokovic will most likely play at the main event after Tennis Australia was pushing for him to be awarded a medical exemption. Djokovic gave an interview to L'Equipe on the condition that they won't ask him about the Australian Open.
They agreed and conducted an interview after awarding him with their Foreign Sportsman of the Year award and in it he said:
"I don’t like it when people present themselves as perfect, on and off the court. That does not exist. That
is why I appreciate Sasha and Daniil. And they are incredible tennis
players. I would have hoped to have kicked their backsides a few times
this year in Tokyo or in New York but we always ended up joking about
it. I love it. It is the rivalry of the Next Gen: Zverev, Djokovic,
Medvedev!”
Speaking further on Medvedev and Zverev, he sees parallels between himself and them:
“He is not politically correct but I am like that. I can easily
identify with that. The same for Zverev. He has the same approach. We can talk about a rebel’s mentality but not only that. We want to be authentic, stick to our values."
And finally he finished up with:
"When
you make a mistake, I like it when you say: ‘I made a mistake’. If you
want to criticise me, OK, it is your choice. I am not perfect but I am
going to try to learn from all this."