Thread by @Yolitatennis

/Thread

Amid the many and very welcome tributes to Djokovic as Player of the Decade, I want to write a thread about another battle that he won this year.

A battle fought not on court, but in the boardroom, in the press room, fending off attacks from Twitter&and the media.

The origins of this battle go back to 2016, when Novak was voted President of the Player Council by his colleagues.

I remember the media strongly backing Murray&being bitterly disappointed with how the players voted.

There was one nasty article... and then silence.

Ben Rothenberg even had an interview with Murray prepared, so certain were they that the players would agree with the media&be swayed by their campaign.

Nobody mentioned that Novak had been elected president.

For a year&a half, it was as if the Player Council had no president.

And then came the Player Council meeting at the 2018 Australian Open.

There were rumours of a union of players, of Novak bringing a lawyer to explain to players how they could fight for their rights.

All hell broke lose,Novak was demonised, paid scribes did what they do best:

They attacked Novak in the press room and started a smear campaign. False equivalences, lies, guilt by association, you name it.

Novak stayed put, as he does.

And he kept doing his thing: journos were not going to tell him what he could and couldn't do.

In the summer of 2018, players re-elected Novak as President of the Player Council.

This is what happens when players can vote freely and not from a list prepared by the media.

In November 2018, Roger Rasheed, who always sided with the tournaments, was voted out of the Council.

The players meant business: surprisingly, they wanted to be represented by people who sided with them and not with the tournaments. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And we get to 2019.

The next target was much bigger.

Chris Kermode also invariably sided with tournaments against players. He had to go.🤷🏻‍♀️

In March 2019, the Player Council decided that Chris Kermode's contract would not be renewed.

About Rasheed nobody really cared, but Kermode was something else.

He was going to fight for his nice life in Monaco, making over a million pounds a year.

He had his army.

An army of journos, some of who later called themselves #BriggsFam

By then Justin Gimmelstob had pleaded no contest to charges of assault. BriggsFam salivated, making Novak guilty of Justin's crimes.

Justin was defiant&refused to go, but Novak convinced him to step down.

First of many BriggsFam miscalculations. They thought Novak would defend him. Not so.

Novak was attacked relentlessly in the press room, but Novak was in total command. He put Ben Rothenberg in his place. So much, that Ben was afraid to show up to Novak's next presser.😂

Desperate times for Kermode and his minions. They did everything they could.

Rafa announced his displeasure for not being consulted. Roger sat firmly on the fence, surprisingly. 😉

Stan Warinka answered a private letter by Pospisil publicly, in ALL CAPS.

Ben took his revenge by convincing the corporate "bad boy" to bad-mouth Novak, so #BriggsFam could insult the #1 player ostensibly quoting Nick.

Novak refused to take the bait, ignored the pettiness&kept fighting for the lower-ranked players.

He rose above it all,as always.😍

Stan, that paragon of virtue, allowed #BriggsFam to write a letter to The Times, using his name to sign it. A letter against the Player Council.

Journos kept putting pressure on Novak to revote the decision to terminate Kermode's contract.

Novak stayed strong.

The council continued his work, interviewing candidates to help decide Kermode's replacement.

Tim Mayotte, one of the candidates, threw a tantrum on Twitter.

To no avail.

Hard times for Kermode and his minions.

They left no stone unturned.

They called Kermode's removal "a coup".🙄

A group of people democratically electing a leader to defend their rights is not a coup.

A coup is when the establishment plots to overthrow a democratically elected leader.

A coup is what #BriggsFam tried to do during Wimbledon.😜

But they failed. It's not clear to me whether they believed their own lies that Novak had no support, or they don't know how to count.

But one cannot do a coup if one doesn't have the numbers.😝

Haase resigned because of the leaks&a couple of other players left the council.

No mass resignations, as hoped.😂

The leaks stopped&the council continued working.

Kermode played his last card: he got Rafa&Roger to replace the players gone from the Council.

Why Rafa accepted, I don't know, maybe Nike,Moyá,family, maybe he grew out of his youthful opinions.

Roger got something very big in exchange of helping Kermode to get his job back. He got Kermode to make Laver Cup official, with perks, and matches counted as official *retroactively*.

Kermode didn't mind flaunting his corruption. It was all for a good cause: his job.

Again, a miscalculation.

Again, I don't know whether believed their own lies that Roger and Rafa have more support than Novak among players. Or that nobody loves Novak.

The fact is that Roger and Rafa in the council didn't make any difference whatsoever.

The ATP Finals will be moved from London and Kermode will not get his job back.

Novak, Pospisil&all the players fighting for a bigger share of the profits for lower ranked players won this battle. There is talk of women joining.

Novak's legacy may well be a Union of Players.

Novak fought this battle the whole year, against an army of journos distorting reality, using whatever they could use to discredit Novak (Gimmelstob was used and discarded, it was never about him),waging a true character-assassination campaign.

And Novak won...As he does. 💅😀

And on top of all this, Novak managed to win 2 Grand Slams, 2 Masters and a 500 event.

Not too bad. 💪💓

I know the war is not won and there is a lot to be done.

Corporate money usually wins.

But I am very proud that Novak, in spite of being the player who has won more prize money in the history of the sport, decided to side with his less fortunate colleagues, endure endless meetings and face unbelievable hostility from the powers that be, all to do what's right.

We saw the true character of many players this year.

The easiest thing for Novak would have been to not make waves and be a President like so many before him.

I'm not going to lie, many times I wished he would resign. This endeavour was taking so much out of him.

But talking to my father one day, old socialist, Rafa fan,who had never really warmed to Novak,he said to me:

"How can you want him to stop? By doing this he's already won. Game over."

Indeed.

Novak's won in more ways than shown by this table.

And I'm bursting with pride.😀

Re-reading the thread, I realised there is a cryptic reference to "leaks".

While players in the council discussed things with the expectation of privacy, one of them was leaking everything to the media.

As I said, we got a glimpse of the nature of some of the players.

The leaks stopped after the failed coup. So all's well that ends well.

We all think of 8-7 40-15. Imagine doing that after fending off an attempted coup. That's Novak's mental strength on court.

His mental strength off court, all year, was every bit as impressive. 😍💪💗