Tennis legend John McEnroe thinks Novak Djokovic’s Australian Open deportation saga “is going to hit him hard”. Djokovic said he was “extremely disappointed” after losing his Federal Court appeal to stay in Australia last Sunday. He had his visa cancelled on public safety grounds, after government officials had questioned the decision to give him a medical exemption against getting vaccinated for Covid-19. The 20-times grand slam winner’s coach Marian Vajda had broken the team’s silence on Friday, saying the world No 1 was “hurting mentally” at his “unjust and unhealthy” treatment in Melbourne, where he has won the last three Australian Open titles. “He is as tough as they come ever on a tennis court mentally,” seven-time major winner McEnroe later told Eurosport. “Remember a couple of years ago when he fell off the map? He’d won four [majors] in a row and the next year and a half or so he couldn’t beat anyone. All of a sudden he came back and he was better than ever. "This is going to hit him hard... he worked so hard to be loved!" 💔 John McEnroe has his say on the "ludicrous" Novak Djokovic situation 🗣 #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/FQLoCxdpBi — Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) January 21, 2022 “He has made it somewhat more difficult for himself by not getting vaccinated. That’s complicated things for trying to defend titles that he won. “I don’t know if he thought he could go down to Australia and compete, I’m still trying to figure out why he would meet with a journalist if in fact he had Covid and not tell the journalist, I find that hard to believe. “Certain things, like why he would do something as obvious as fly from Spain to Serbia when that’s against regulations, because for me, that’s what caught up to him.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Novak Djokovic (@djokernole) The 34-year-old Serbian Djokovic faces a three-year ban from returning to Australia, while his participation in the French Open is also in doubt, as he chases a record 21st major title. “There’s no question this is going to hit him hard,” McEnroe told Eurosport. “Now there’s uncertainty about the French Open, he’ll need to be vaccinated to play there, and what about Wimbledon? He doesn’t care about these other tournaments, so this is really, really unfortunate for a guy who had worked so hard to be loved. “It’s tough to be loved and I know about times when people are against you, but deep down we want to be loved. “When he lost to [Daniil] Medvedev at the [US] Open and he was going for the [calendar] Grand Slam, he said the biggest thing was that he appreciated the crowd there. Australia’s the place where they love him the most and he didn’t even play, so this has just gotten ludicrous. I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” Djokovic has not yet addressed his deportation since returning to Belgrade via Abu Dhabi, but his coach insists he will bounce back. “It was an unhealthy and unjust decision, based on the assumption that Djokovic could do or influence something that had not yet happened,” Vajda told broadcaster Sport Klub. “I haven’t communicated with him since he arrived in Belgrade. It is clear that it hit him mentally, it will hurt him for a long time and it will be difficult to get it out of his head. “I know him very well. Novak is strong, resolute and has not yet said his last word in tennis.”