‘We need him here’: Djokovic comeback melts Melbourne hearts … almost

  • Serb roundly cheered despite fears of abuse from crowd
  • Detractors remain as some fans question his character

In the moments before Novak Djokovic returned to Rod Laver Arena, many fans were unsure whether he would be welcomed back as the nine-time Australian Open champion or rebuked as an unvaccinated Covid-era villain.

Even his vocal supporters, like Peta Kovitch, draped in a Serbian flag and a string of lights that lit up the name Novak around her neck, expected some abuse from the Melbourne crowd. “If they want to boo, well they can go to the football. I’m sorry, that’s where it belongs,” she said before the match.

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Nick Kyrgios’ withdrawal affects the Australian Open more than him | Emma Kemp

Happy slam’s return to normality suffers another blow with late loss of its most sellable product

The time was 4pm, 27 hours before Nick Kyrgios was due to play his opening match and three minutes before he confirmed he would not. The announcement on the PA that “Nick Kyrgios is on his way to the main media conference room” was so unanticipated that journalists had to run to get there before he did.

You never know what you will get with Kyrgios, but 11th-hour withdrawals have become a theme of his non-existent 2023 season. It started with the United Cup, when his Australia teammates were informed 10 minutes before their joint press conference in Sydney that not only would he not be there but would not be playing any part in the competition.

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Painful and invasive racing greyhound breeding technique should be banned, vets say

‘Horrific’ technique which involves removing the uterus is unnecessary and outdated, animal welfare activists say

Vets want an invasive and painful greyhound breeding technique, which involves removing the uterus, banned across Australia.

About 80% of racing greyhounds in NSW are bred using surgical artificial insemination. The Australian Veterinary Association has released a new policy declaring SAI “must not be performed in dogs”.

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Australia and Papua New Guinea pledge new security pact saying interests are ‘intertwined’

In contrast with security deal between China and Solomon Islands, the Australia-PNG agreement will be ‘public and transparent’, prime ministers vow

Australia and Papua New Guinea have pledged to clinch a new security treaty within four months, declaring the deal will also tackle the threat of climate change.

The security interests of both countries are “intertwined” and the agreement would help protect their “independence, sovereignty and resilience”, according to a statement issued by the two parties on Thursday.

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Djokovic claims he was made ‘villain of the world’ over Australia Covid row

  • Former world No 1 points finger at media over 2022 drama
  • ‘Everything got out of hand … the media picked on me big time’

Novak Djokovic says he felt like “the villain of the world” during the storm that surrounded his deportation from Australia before last year’s Australian Open. The nine-time champion at Melbourne Park was deported from the country last January after his visa was cancelled over his Covid vaccination status.

A three-year ban from Australia initially accompanied that decision but that was overturned in November and the Serb is preparing for this year’s tournament, which begins on Monday.

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Police charge 32 people over Melbourne A-League pitch invasion and search for 11 more

One man believed to have been involved in the clash left Australia shortly after the match, Victoria police say

The number of people charged after an A-League pitch invasion has grown to 32 and police are searching for 11 others they believe to be responsible for serious offences.

About 150 spectators stormed the AAMI Park derby between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City earlier in December, injuring the goalkeeper Tom Glover, referee Alex King, a TV cameraman and two security guards.

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Novak Djokovic forgives but won’t forget Australian visa saga as he prepares for Adelaide International

World men’s tennis No 5 says return proves he is ready to move on from his deportation and begin quest for 10th Australian Open title

Novak Djokovic says there are no hard feelings on his return to Australia, but can’t guarantee he will ever completely move past the saga that torpedoed his 2022 Australian Open hopes and thrust him into the centre of a media frenzy.

Djokovic was deported from Australia almost 12 months ago after arriving unvaccinated against Covid at a time when the country was still subject to strict biosecurity regulations. Such regulations have now been lifted and in November the Australian government overturned the three-year ban that came with Djokovic’s deportation and granted him a visa to return for the summer of tennis.

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Activists to revisit controversial ‘Where is Peng Shuai’ protests at January Australian Open

One of the protesters, Drew Pavlou, says they want to ‘make trouble’ for Tennis Australia over its links to China

Activists plan to reprise their controversial “Where is Peng Shuai?” protest at next month’s grand slam, with the support of three-time Australian Open winner Martina Navratilova.

At this year’s Open in January, Tennis Australia was criticised for initially confiscating the shirts, citing a ban on “commercial or political” material. The decision was later reversed.

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Boxing Day Test: Victorian fast bowler Scott Boland retains spot over Hazlewood

  • Victorian quick will return to the scene of his famous Test debut last December
  • Boland has taken 25 wickets in his five Tests

Boxing Day Test hero Scott Boland has retained his spot in Australia’s star bowling attack and will line up at the MCG against South Africa.

The Victorian quick will return to the scene of his famous Test debut last December, with Australia selectors opting for Boland over Josh Hazlewood, who continues his recovery from a side strain.

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Channel Ten offers $1.5bn to Cricket Australia for broadcast rights in 2024/25

Seven or Nine would have to partner with Fox to compete with bid, but they are talking up their ability to promote the game

In the life cycle of a Cricket Australia administration, nothing matters more than the home broadcast deal. There is prize money, ICC distributions, overseas broadcasts, but the value of showing the major summer sport to an Australian audience dwarfs the lot. Everything that CA does depends on that cashflow, as well as keeping cricket in front of as many people as possible. The current contract has another season to run, but with channels Seven, Nine, Ten, and Fox Sports all keen for a slice next time, everyone wants a deal done now.

Last time, in 2018 in the dying months of James Sutherland’s time in charge, was a landmark missed opportunity. Channel Ten had spent the preceding years making a success of the Big Bash League, and with the backing of US giant CBS, offered $960m to put every Australian cricket match on free-to-air. That meant domestic men’s and women’s games, boosting the Sheffield Shield and the 50-over competitions along with internationals and the BBL. But CA wanted to top a billion dollars, and after a verbal agreement with Ten, reneged to split the rights between Seven and Fox for a relatively small increase to $1.18bn, with plenty of that value in contra advertising rather than in cash.

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‘Dangerous and deluded’: advocates and MPs criticise sporting codes for pushback on gambling reform

Leading campaigner Tim Costello ‘laughed out loud in disbelief’ at peak body claim existing restrictions ‘had the balance right’

Gambling reform advocates and those harmed by online betting say it is “dangerous and deluded” for Australia’s biggest sporting codes to oppose greater regulation.

Support for tougher restrictions is growing, with Allegra Spender, a federal independent MP, the latest politician to voice concerns about young people being exposed to gambling via advertising.

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Graham Arnold likely to sign new Socceroos deal after ‘best coach’ rating at 2022 World Cup

Arnold to meet Football Australia chiefs in early January as L’Equipe puts him in top spot following last-16 achievement

Graham Arnold will sit down with Football Australia chiefs in early January to thrash out a new deal that is expected to see him remain in charge of the Socceroos, with the coach’s bargaining power having received a fillip after he was named the best coach of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Highly regarded sports newspaper L’Equipe put the out-of-contract Australian in top spot on its rankings, above the likes of Lionel Scaloni of Argentina and France’s Didier Deschamps.

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Football Australia issues lifetime bans to Melbourne Victory fans after pitch invasion

Two Melbourne Victory fans involved in the AAMI Park pitch invasion that resulted in Melbourne City goalkeeper Thomas Glover being injured have received life bans from Football Australia.

Saturday night’s violence forced the abandonment of the A-League Men derby.

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Wong urged to raise human rights concerns on Beijing trip – as it happened

This blog is now closed

It’s officially a week before Christmas, which means the forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology are fairly confident they can tell us what whether we can set up for an al fresco Christmas lunch or not.

For some parts of the country, there is a chance of showers:

Particularly in the south, we can get some volatile weather but all the patterns really starting to change as we move into later part of this week.

So we’ll see a weather system move through southern parts of the country, Thursday and Friday. Then a big high-pressure system behind it will quickly move into the Tasman Sea and then kind of sit there over the Christmas weekend into early the following week and normally that drives a lot of warm weather across much of southern parts of the country and our guidance is showing a similar pattern with that as well.

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Three men charged over mass pitch invasion at A-League Men Melbourne derby

Melbourne Victory could be hit with heavy sanctions for the behaviour of their fans

Victoria Police have charged three men in relation to the mass pitch invasion at the A-League Men Melbourne derby on Saturday.

All three of the men, aged 23, 19 and 18, presented at police stations on Monday, Victoria Police said in a statement.

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Police vow to prosecute A-League pitch invaders as FA pledges to ‘weed’ them out of game

Victoria police is reviewing footage of the pitch invasion during Saturday’s A-League Men’s Melbourne derby and has vowed officers will be “knocking on doors very soon”.

Three alleged assaults are under investigation – to City’s goalkeeper, Thomas Glover, a referee and a Channel Ten camera operator.

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Victoria police to prosecute pitch invaders; more contaminated spinach cases in Queensland – as it happened

Sport governing body says ‘such behaviour has no place in Australian football’. This blog is now closed

‘We will look at the facts’

James Johnson is asked whether Melbourne Victory has any outstanding sanctions for past incidents. He says he is not aware of any but past events may be considered as an “aggravating factor” as an investigation into the incident unfolds:

There is no other suspended disciplinary action that I’m aware of, but what I will say is that we will be working through that today. We have already started working on the show cause process as of late last night, and we will be moving forward as quickly and swiftly as possible to finalise it, because it is important we get ahead of this issue as a sport.

What I can say is that we will look at the facts, we’ll look at it objectively and we will take a decision that we believe is in the overall best interest of the game but I prefer not to comment on the specifics of the outcome because we have to go through that process first.

What happened during the game last night and what happens with the result;

A “show cause letter” to Melbourne Victory;

An attempt to identify individuals involved in the pitch invasion.

This is an element that … infiltrates our game and tries to ruin it for the people who love us was in. We’ll be looking to weed out those people from the sport.

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‘Our game is in tatters’: Australian football reacts with shock to Melbourne derby violence

Australian football has reacted with a mixture of shock, anger, sadness and disbelief to the chaotic and violent scenes that resulted in the abandonment of the A-League men’s Melbourne derby on Saturday night.

City’s goalkeeper, Thomas Glover, was left bloodied after he was hit by a metal bucket allegedly thrown by a Victory fan as supporters stormed the pitch midway through the first half of the match at Aami Park.

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Australian denied gold at world short course swimming after bizarre re-run of final following technical error

  • Isaac Cooper swam initial 50m backstroke in junior world record
  • US’s Ryan Murphy took gold in re-run in slower time

A shattered Isaac Cooper fought back tears after he was cruelly denied a backstroke world short course swimming gold medal in bizarre circumstances after the final had to be re-run.

Cooper was first home in the 50m final in Melbourne on Friday night but less than half the field completed the race after an alarm sounded due to a “technical error”.

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Former NSW premier Mike Baird appointed chair of Cricket Australia

Baird will take over from February with his predecessor stepping down and taking the chief executive’s job with HBF

Former New South Wales premier Mike Baird has been appointed as the new chair of Cricket Australia.

Baird will take over as the organisation’s new boss from February, with his predecessor Lachlan Henderson stepping down after moving back to Perth.

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