When Novak Djokovic first suggested he was prepared to forgo major tournaments "because the principles of decision-making on my body are more important than any title", BBC interviewer Amol Rajan regarded the notion as almost comically self-defeating, demanding: "Why, Novak, why?". If you seek genuine absurdity, though, look less at the Serb's personal medical decision than at the circumstances of his exile from this month's US Open.
