"Suck it up, for the greater good" tells Martina Navratilova to Novak Djokovic

18-time singles Slam champion Martina Navratilova has expressed her belief that Novak Djokovic should leave the country following the continuing saga of his attempts to play the Australian Open unvaccinated.

Navratilova sees the move as the right thing to do when considering the world number one’s apparent lone status as the only unvaccinated player in the men’s competition. There is still the chance that Djokovic will be deported by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke as an official decision on the matter is yet to be announced.

Speaking to Channel 7 News in Australia she said:

"[Getting vaccinated] may not be something you want to do. But, the numbers are astonishingly in favour of getting vaccinated, to get rid of this Covid, horrible infection, that’s infecting the whole world.So you just suck it up! For the team! for the greater good!"

She further said:

“And Aussies, of all people, where this happens in Australia. They have been the most locked down country, Melbourne the biggest lockdown city in the world. And this is what you deal with. I want to be talking about tennis, not about this. It’s just really a shame.”

She finished off by saying:

“The best thing for Novak to do I think would be to just say “you know what, there were too many mistakes. This is not ok. [He] would be the only unvaccinated player, as I understand it, to play in the Australian Open. I think everybody that has not been vaccinated has been sent back. And the right thing to do is just to go home. But I don’t think he’ll do that because he wants that 21st [Slam] title.”