Tav Taverner is angry - "red hot, fiery mad" in his words. "Go home, Joker!" he adds for good measure.
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Freshly boostered, he is beside himself that Novak Djokovic was even given whatever exemption the Serbian star might have had to enter the country.
Mr Taverner was so incensed about the bizarre case of the celebrity and the rules that he rushed out and bought a sheaf of papers to read every word he could. He predicted the world number one would get abuse if he stepped onto the court in Melbourne.
"Regardless of whether you're a tennis fan or just an Australian citizen, doing your best, getting the jabs, isolating, doing all the right things, and this guy is coming out of nowhere and expects to come and win another Grand Slam.
"It is just not on."
"It's a world sporting event and if you ever go to the Aussie Open, you'll never forget it. This year, if the Joker's out on the court, he's going to be thrown bottles and rubbish and booed clean off the court.
"Our country doesn't deserve that disrespect."
His views were echoed by everyone The Canberra Times talked to except for one woman near Manuka Oval who said: "We're here to watch the cricket. Don't care about tennis."
But everybody else agreed the Australian Border Force was right to block the tennis star. Some smelt a strong whiff of politics and suspected Mr Morrison of changing his stance when he saw which way popular sentiment was blowing.
But everybody (with the exception of the cricket lovers) echoed the prime minister's line of "rules are rules".
Some thought the episode made Australia look foolish in the eyes of the world - rather than seeing it as a firm stand on principle, these sceptics thought other countries would view Australia as confused.
"There are rules to be followed," one businessman said. Frank Marris thought the tennis player's "anti-vaxx message" was "appalling". "If he's not vaccinated, he should be treated the same as everybody else," Kennis Leung said as she watched youngsters play tennis.
"You can see his actions from before. He just doesn't believe in the responsibility to follow the COVID-safe rules," tennis coach Avi Baskar said in between sessions teaching children serves on the courts alongside Old Parliament House.
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He wondered if the Serb star had got an exemption to enter Australia because he caught COVID after a tennis tournament he organised despite the pandemic in Serbia in 2020.
The only hint of sympathy for the tennis star came from a pair of ladies who didn't want to be named as they returned from the shops in Manuka.
"I do feel sorry for him if he's done the right thing," one of them said. "He's got on a flight and he's come out and wasted his time and effort.
"I want to watch him play."
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Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
