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A view of the Margaret Court Arena<\/p>\n
Court likes to rail against cancel culture despite being living proof that it doesn\u2019t exist, or at least doesn\u2019t really work. Despite her protestations, removing Court\u2019s name from a stadium would not edit her sporting achievements, just as tearing down a statue does not change history. Whose achievements we celebrate is a choice, and to be chosen is a privilege. It is not hard to find others more worthy: Billie Jean King has led calls for the arena to be renamed in honour of Evonne Goolagong, another great player and an Indigenous Australian icon.<\/p>\n
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That appears unlikely any time soon, so instead it is up to Djokovic to diminish her fame just a touch. On Sunday he joined Court on 24 singles titles. He will likely win another, and another, and throw a little more shade each time, eclipsing her record tally which has stood untouched for nearly half a century.<\/p>\n
Djokovic is not a unanimously popular king of tennis. It hasn\u2019t helped him that his reference points have always been Roger Federer\u00a0and Rafael Nadal, two of the most cherished athletes of our time. Federer, always poised and immaculate, like a glorious shire horse in a cashmere cardigan; Nadal with those puppy eyes and giant arms, all polite and humble and embarrassed to be destroying rivals\u2019 dreams.<\/p>\n
In that light Djokovic has sometimes seemed a little calculated and robotic, with a steeliness that was often hard to warm to. He was regularly pitted against these two icons of the game, and the crowd would cheer the other guy. Or he\u2019d be pitted against someone nowhere near as good as him, and so the crowd would cheer the other guy. He sometimes felt jilted on the world\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n
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Margaret Court presents the women\u2019s Australian Open trophy in 2013<\/p>\n
Then came the 2022 Australian Open, and his views on vaccines hurt his reputation: at best an oddball, a kook, at worst someone a little sinister. But Djokovic was exploited and used as a political pawn when authorities detained and interrogated him over what was a paperwork dispute, at a time of heightened tensions in Australia and around the world. He might have considered that he picked the wrong fight when Nigel Farage joined his cause, but by then so much damage had been done.<\/p>\n
So perhaps it is timely that as his career enters its winter, his point of reference is finally shifting and opinions are softening just a little. Federer has retired, Nadal is retiring. He has eclipsed their tallies and now there is only one left to surpass. <\/p>\n
Djokovic is certainly a better ambassador for the sport than Court: his speech following defeat by Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final was full of grace and appreciation for his conqueror when he must have been hurting. Tennis Australia could do worse than rename the Margaret Court Arena after Djokovic, a 10-time winner in Melbourne. Certainly it shouldn\u2019t be left to Djokovic to dim her spotlight, but he will be doing tennis a service when he finally wins slam No 25.<\/p>\n