Exclusive: Novak Djokovic's lasting association with 'struck off' oxygen doctor
The hyperbaric oxygen therapy practitioner has sat in the rows behind, or in Novak Djokovic's box at every Australian Open Djokovic has played since 2019. Will he be there again this year?
Novak Djokovic set another astonishing tennis record yesterday, playing in his 430th Grand Slam singles match, surpassing the 429 that previous record holder Roger Federer had contested (writes Nick Harris).
Djokovic, 37, defeated qualifier Jaime Faria in four sets in his 430th Slam singles match to reach the third round of the Australian Open, a tournament he has already won 10 times since 2008.
In Slam singles tournaments in the Open era, only Djokovic, Federer and Serena Williams (423 Slam singles matches) have even reached 400 matches.
If Djokovic were to go on to win this year’s Aussie Open, he would become the first person to win 25 Slam singles titles, surpassing the record of 24 held by Australia’s Margaret Court between 1960 and 1973.
"I love this sport. I love competition," Djokovic said after his win over Faria. "Whether I win or lose, I will always leave my heart out on the court. I'm just blessed to be making another record."
Djokovic has never been shy of doing things his own way. He has always had a fiesty and at times unconventional approach to his sport. He has always done what it takes to win, making best use of whatever training methods, diet and assistance he believes can make him the best in the world.
In today’s guest piece by Ed Willison, Ed tells the story of Djokovic’s long-term collaboration with a controversial figure, Malcolm Hooper. The story speaks for itself.
Winners in elite sport - all of elite sport - do whatever they can to find an edge, and evidently Djokovic has found benefits in using Hooper’s services, not least his hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
I have worked with Ed for more than eight years on major investigative projects including the story of Pep Guardiola’s failed drug tests as a player, a breakdown of the “Dirtiest Olympics”, and the mystery of a Special Forces secret substance used in an attempt to fuel Team GB glory at London 2012.
Ed has also published the below piece over at his own Substack, which I highly recommend. On doping and related issues, Ed is the best in the business. On his site, if you want a 1,500-word supplementary package of details and photos that accompany this piece, you can subscribe to Ed’s set for a month to access that - and a lot more.
By Edmund Willison
When Craig Dawson, a multiple sclerosis sufferer who could not walk, was ushered into a hyperbaric oxygen chamber at the OxyMed clinic in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, they were the last conscious moments of his life.
A short while later, an exhaust valve failed and the mask delivering him 100 percent pure oxygen suddenly sucked onto his face with 80 kilograms of force, emptying his lungs and triggering a heart attack.
He was soon found by the clinic’s owner, Malcolm Hooper, unconscious with blood inside his mask.
The chamber had not been fitted with an ‘emergency dump valve’ which allows a patient to be reached within 30 seconds in an emergency.
Instead, it took five minutes for Hooper to decompress the chamber and reach Dawson. Hooper also did not have a valid First Aid qualification, reported News.com.au.
The multiple sclerosis sufferer never regained consciousness and died five days later in hospital.
It was in this clinic, a six-minute drive from Melbourne Park, that Novak Djokovic reportedly entered one of OxyMed’s hyperbaric oxygen chambers just months earlier during the 2016 Australian Open. Hooper kept his clinic open until the early hours of the morning for tennis players competing at the tournament that year.
The following year, in 2017, Hooper was charged with failing to provide a safe workspace emanating from Craig Dawson’s death. And in late 2020, the Australian government’s Therapeutic Goods Association initiated proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Hooper for promoting hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's, cerebral palsy, dementia and HIV.
Despite these serious charges, several of which Hooper has since been found guilty, an Honest Sport open-source investigation has now found that Novak Djokovic has continued his association with Malcolm Hooper, who he referred to as a ‘dear friend’ in 2017.
The ten-time Australian Open champion was pictured with Hooper inside his OxyMed clinic during the 2019 Australian Open. Hooper also sat in the rows behind, or in, the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s player’s box at the 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024 Australian Opens.
Hooper also wrote on social media that he ‘assisted’ Djokovic during the 2019 and 2021 editions of the event. Djokovic features in promotional material for the clinic advertising OxyMed’s services.
The player’s representatives have yet to respond to inquiries from Honest Sport as to whether Djokovic has received hyperbaric oxygen therapy from Hooper since the death of Hooper’s patient in 2016. Djokovic is therefore yet to detail why he has chosen to continue his association with Hooper.
Djokovic, however, has always been open about his use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy therefore is no suggestion of wrongdoing on his part.
“I think it really helps - not with muscle but more with recovery after an exhausting set,” Djokovic told the Wall Street Journal in 2011. “It's like a spaceship. It's very interesting technology”.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurised chamber and mimics the effects of sleeping at high-altitude. This therapy is legal and beneficial to athletes because it boosts their red blood cell count and thus the oxygen carrying capacity of their body.
Djokovic has previously suggested that use of the therapy was a sensitive topic. A representative of Djokovic’s new coach Andy Murray told the Wall Street Journal that Murray tried the therapy but decided that it was not for him.
“It’s very sensitive, especially in the European part of the world,” Djokovic said. “I wish I can have this all over the place, I wish”.
Djokovic has since been pictured in hyperbaric oxygen therapy clinics in England and Spain, as the stigma around the treatment has eased. Elite footballers are now open about their use of the therapy on social media.
According to Hooper’s Facebook page, Hooper claims to have assisted Djokovic during the 2021 Australian Open. The post was captioned, “It is again a privilege to assist Novak with his AO 2021 campaign”, and Hooper uploaded two posters, signed by Djokovic himself, depicting a caricature Djokovic with a speech bubble coming from his mouth saying, “Hyperbaric oxygen, the power from within”.
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Djokovic signed one of the posters, “To Mal and Kate (Hooper’s wife), much love to you and OxyMed”, and the second “Journey of a broken racquet not a broken spirit”, acknowledging the racquet he had broken against Alexander Zverev in his quarter-final match. Hooper was also pictured inside Djokovic’s box during his semi-final with Aslan Karatsev.
Honest Sport has also found a photograph of Djokovic with the artwork, posted on Instagram by the artist.
“Novak Djokovic received a copy of my Open Winner caricature at OxyMed Australia in Chapel Street today [the clinic’s address],” read the post. “Mal Hooper helped Novak overcome the tear on his tummy and commissioned me to draw a few Djokers”.
Hooper’s other clients have previously included the three-time Australian Open Doubles champion Bethany Mattek-Sands, Ana Ivanovic and Mike Bryan.
“It just helps recovery. I felt a little better doing it,” said Bryan.
According to the ‘Oxysports Integrative Medicine’ sections of older versions of Hooper’s clinic website, Hooper also offers optional legal amino acid supplements, and peptides to be taken in combination with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. There is no evidence that any tennis players have ever received any other types of treatment or therapy from Hooper. However, amino acid injections were given to Australian rules footballers by Hooper.
When tennis players reportedly underwent hyperbaric oxygen therapy at OxyMed prior to the death of Hooper’s patient, Hooper’s problems with the law were already well known.
In 2013, Hooper, a former chiropractor who used to be addressed as ‘doctor’, was disqualified from practising for two years after he charged a 30-year-old patient with cerebral palsy approximately $50,000 for hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
The patient called his treatments a ‘charlatan style’ sham, and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal said Hooper showed ‘disgraceful and dishonourable’ behaviour, misrepresenting his treatment’s effectiveness against the incurable condition.
The tribunal, which deals with medical treatments, found him guilty of five counts of unprofessional conduct and three of professional misconduct.
The husband of the American player Bethanie Mattek-Sands was unconcerned.
“He’s been nothing but an upstanding, good guy,” he told the Wall Street Journal in 2016.
The article stated that Hooper had been open about his past. In Australia, one also does not need to be a doctor to operate hyperbaric oxygen chambers.
There was however one athlete who was worried about the treatment he had received at Hooper’s OxyMed clinic.
In 2015, the former Essendon Australian footballer Hal Hunter sued the club and Australian Football League (AFL) in an attempt to find out, among other things, exactly what had been put into his body at Hooper’s clinic in the wake of the supplement scandal that rocked the league.
In 2016, the Court of Arbitration banned thirty-four Essendon players after they were injected with the prohibited peptide Thymosin-beta-4 by the club’s medical staff, not Hooper.
Mr Hunter alleged that in 2012 he attended the clinic, then called HyperMed, at the club’s request. He was sent by Stephen Dank, the sports scientist since banned for life from the AFL after he committed several anti-doping violations.
As part of an AFL investigation, the organisation said that Hooper had reportedly injected the players with amino acids that he had sourced from a patient. This patient, who suffered from muscular dystrophy, had allegedly obtained the supplements from a chemist abroad but both he and Hooper claimed to not know their contents.
Ultimately, the AFL concluded the injections did not contain prohibited substances, and the Supreme Court ruled that Essendon Football club had provided Hunter with all of the medical data that they possessed. Hooper has never been charged with any anti-doping breaches, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by any tennis players.
Instead, Hooper has faced other problems.
In July 2021, Malcolm Hooper convicted in the County Court of Victoria of three counts of failing to provide a safe workplace after Mr Dawson’s death. He was also fined $726,750.
The judge found Hooper, and OxyMed, guilty of failing to complete comprehensive risk assessments of patients, and of failing to have attendants with adequate first aid training. Hooper also pleaded guilty to failing to ensure appropriate supervision of patients. The judge also said that Hooper, who did not have a valid first aid qualification, did not place Craig Dawson on a hard flat surface and therefore the chest compressions he performed were largely if not completely ineffective.
However, Hooper was found not guilty of recklessly placing a person in danger of serious injury. The judge said it remained unknown whether effective chest compressions would have changed the outcome of events. The judge did note that Hooper cared about his patients and passionately believed in hyperbaric oxygen therapy, even if some of his belief lay outside the ‘mainstream’.
In December 2021, the Federal Court of Australia fined Hooper and his clinic OxyMed $3 million for wrongly advertising that hyperbaric chambers were effective in the treatment of serious diseases and medical conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, cerebral palsy, dementia, stroke, HIV/AIDS, cancer, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Honest Sport asked Novak Djokovic’s representatives about his association with Malcolm Hooper post-2021 but is yet to receive a response.
Up until 2017, Djokovic, as per his own words, referred to Hooper as a ‘dear friend’ in a recorded video for the 11th edition of the International Hyperbaric Medical Symposium.
“I would like to thank my dear friend Dr. Malcolm Hooper from Australia who has been greatly influencing my education and my awareness of HBO world in the last 7-8 years,” said Djokovic.
“I have witnessed and seen first-hand the drive and the passion that this generous man has and the good that he has done to so many of his patients over the last seven, eight years with the severe health conditions and diseases.”
It remains to be seen whether Malcolm Hooper, as he was in 2023 and 2024, will again be sat behind Djokovic’s player’s box at the upcoming Australian Open.
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