No Vaccine No Trophy: Pune police roasts Novak Djokovic after Rafael Nadal wins 2022 Aus Open

Rafael Nadal, on Sunday (January 30), became the first men’s player to win 21 Grand Slam titles following a memorable 2022 Australian Open final win over Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. Nadal was down and seemed out of contest after losing the first two sets, however, bounced back in epic style to beat Medvedev 2-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 and achieve his second Aus Open title over.

Nadal’s victory is a historic triumph as he has surpassed his close rivals, Swiss maestro Roger Federer and World No. 1 Novak Djokovic to become the first male to get to the magical 21 major titles. Following the mouth-watering clash between Medvedev and Nadal, Pune city police shared a cheeky post encouraging one and all to get vaccinated by sharing a picture of Nadal and Djokovic. 

The caption read, “Get Vaccinated today. #NOVACCineNoTrophy.” The post was a reference to how Djokovic missed his chance of winning the Aus Open, and getting to 21 major titles, after not following the Covid protocols and getting vaccinated.

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For the unversed, Djokovic had missed the entire Aus Open 2022 edition after he was involved in a huge controversy for not being vaccinated for the Covid-19 virus. After a battle between the Aus government and his lawyers prior to the Aus Open, the Serbian was asked to leave the country — following the final decision of the Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke — which made the top-ranked player miss the first Grand Slam of the year. 

Eventually, Djokovic had to pay a heavy price of missing the Aus Open as Nadal has now gone past Federer and his tally, 20 titles each, to win 21 career Grand Slam trophies.

It will be interesting to see if Djokovic changes his mind and gets vaccinated before the French Open in Paris.