Tommy Martin: Djokovic v Australia one of those perfect moral parables tennis specialises in

Even your humble sports hobbit can acknowledge that this is a big story, one deserving of the attentions of a wider, non-sports audience and possibly even worthy of missing the early frames of Mark Allen against Judd Trump in the Cazoo Masters

Defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic practises at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open tennis championship. The Serbian’s entry into Australia and subsequent detention and release has brought attention from far beyond the tennis court. Picture: Mark Baker/AP

If you’ve ever come across the sports department of a news organisation, you’ll know that they don’t like to be bothered by the outside world. In fact, many otherwise normal people become sports journalists precisely because they don’t like to be bothered by the outside world. They are like contented little hobbits, but with slightly hairier feet.

In my experience of working in sports departments, every now and then a news editor will come ambling over, as welcome as a Jehovah’s Witness who wants to power-hose your driveway. “What the hell does he want?” you think, as the interloper opens with generic sports banter intended to dissolve the palpable hostility. Whatever it is will involve work, you grimly sense, and will inevitably reduce the likelihood of whiling away an afternoon with one eye on the snooker or the horse racing.