It’s been 11 months since the last time fans were able to pack a stadium in the United States to watch sports. Sometimes, it looks like pandemic restrictions will last forever. But Friday in Adelaide, Australia, saw a vision of the future and present that America could have had with competent leadership.
GOAT Serena Williams headlined A day in the unit, a tennis display that helped players prepare to embark on the tuning of the Australian Open after coming out of a 14-day quarantine on reaching Down Under.
Williams faced Naomi Osaka, each with a set, 6-2, before the 23-time major champion prevailed, 10-7, in a decisive tie-break. The other women’s showdown, between No. 1 Ash Barty and No. 2 Simona Halep, also required a tiebreaker, with the Romanian getting a 10-8 victory.
However, the results did not matter much, as the event was a celebration for fans and players to be able to return to normal. Some masks were visible in the crowd, but not mandatory, as the entire Australian country has not had a day with more than 35 new cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the year.
“Trusting us with your laws was fantastic,” Williams said. “And we were so happy to be here, and now it’s worth it.”
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In an interview with Stephen Colbert earlier this week, Williams described the quarantine experience as “super intense but … very good because after that you can have a new normalcy as we were used to last year this time in the United States.”
Williams has been in quarantine with his 3-year-old daughter Olympia, and anyone with children in a pandemic can tell you how silly it sounds when players like Roberto Bautista Agut compare it to “prison … but with wifi”. Novak Djokovic, who was number 20 in Deadspin Idiot of the year for 2020 for its superspreader event and by default the US Open, it also drew criticism for calling for quarantine restrictions to be eased for players, though he tried to clarify who was trying to “use my position of privilege to be at the service of all I can where and when necessary.”
Of course, just like Djokovic was only trying to make a point when he hit a ball against a line player’s throat at Flushing Meadows.
Djokovic withdrew from A Day at the Drive, citing blisters in his hand, but then appeared anyway play a set against Jannik Sinner.
At least Djokovic is a complete stranger is a form of normal that never stops.