A lot has changed in a year—except Novak Djokovic's wizardry in Oz

MATCH POINT: Djokovic's victorious Australian Open return

Novak Djokovic was back on terra firma. His favorite piece of terra firma.

When the nine-time Australian Open champion completed his first-round win over Roberto Carbellés Baéna early on Wednesday morning, he put his hands over his heart, pointed his racquet at the sky, and bent down to pat the crushed-acrylic surface beneath him.

“If I had to choose one court and conditions [to play on],” Djokovic told the crowd, “I’d choose night session in Rod Laver Arena.”

The audience roared in appreciation for his words, just as they had roared and chanted and sung Djokovic’s nickname—“No-lay! No-lay!”—from the moment he walked on the court. The pariah of a year ago was treated like a native son by a crowd widely draped in Serbian red and blue.

“Thanks for giving me such a welcome I could only dream of,” Djokovic told them.

“I could not ask for a better start of the tournament in terms of support, in terms of how I felt on the court and also playing,” he said later. “So much support, so much love.”

Djokovic, who says the balls at the Australian Open are slower this year, hit his forehand with extra force throughout the evening, and finished with 41 winners to 14 for Carballés Baena in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 win.

By the early stages of the second set, though, his night was going so smoothly that he seemed to need to add a little bit stress to it, just to force himself to overcome some adversity. It wouldn’t be an official Djokovic performance without a few growls, a few shakes of his head, a few choice words for his coaching box, a few moments of physical uncertainty, right?

Serving at 1-2, 15-15, Djokovic suddenly looked exhausted after hitting a poor overhead; he could barely bring himself to bend for the next volley. But once he was down 15-30, he refocused and fired a service winner.

If I had to choose one court and conditions [to play on] I’d choose night session in Rod Laver Arena. Novak Djokovic

At 2-2, Djokovic ran hard for a drop shot and came up hopping on one leg. He tweaked his left hamstring in Adelaide, and had his upper leg strapped last night. After that, though, he didn’t show any signs of pain, and later he said that his leg felt better as the match went on.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s getting there.”

Finally, at 3-3, Djokovic seemed to have enough of adversity. When Carballés Baena smacked a big second serve at him, Djokovic smacked an even bigger return back for a winner. He won the next point with a finely threaded drop shot, and then broke with a big injection-of-pace backhand down the line. The glare had been replaced by a fist pump, and the match was essentially over.

“I think towards the end of the second, I just kind of started playing in another gear,” Djokovic said. “The third set, I think first three games I lost one point or something, in the third set. So, yeah, just really glad to be able to finish the way I did.”

Djokovic says he has moved on from the saga of his vaccination status and his deportation, and the tennis fans of Australia have moved on with him. As I wrote last week, over the last 12 months, we’ve come to understand that while being vaccinated will protect us from the more serious effects of Covid, it won’t keep us from getting it, or giving it to someone else. The unvaccinated aren’t the pariahs they were a year ago.

Of course, just because the vaccine worked in a different way than we initially believed doesn’t mean Djokovic’s vaccination stance has been vindicated. But it also doesn’t mean that the crowds in Melbourne are wrong to cheer him so soon after he was kicked out of their country. A lot of contexts can change in a year.

Still, the past year has also shown us that two things never seem to change: Djokovic’s ability to play top level tennis, and his ability to put a setback, any setback, behind him.