In the Djokovic circus, it was the players who hit all the winners

Stefanos Tsitsipas learned to listen to Covid science the hard way. Not the really hard way, of course.

- Emma John

The world’s No 4-ranked tennis player didn’t find himself laid low by the virus or on a ventilator in hospital – he just found himself publicly rebuked by his own government.

While Tsitsipas’s father-cum-coach, Apostolos, gave interviews claiming that “athletes have a strong enough immune system to deal with any challenge”, Greece’s government spokesman was pointing out that a 23 -yearold tennis player, however successful in his field, had “neither the knowledge, nor the studies, nor the research work” to offer valid opinions on vaccination. The story had a happy ending, though: Tsitsipas stopped spouting poorly informed conjecture and got himself jabbed.