A judge will examine the request of the number 1 tennis player in the world, blocked yesterday at Tullamarine airport for a visa considered invalid due to the documentation presented to obtain medical exemption from the Covid-19 vaccine, mandatory for tournament participants
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Australia has decided to delay the expulsion from the country of the number 1 in world tennis, Novak Djokovic, who has filed an appeal against the decision of the authorities to cancel his entry visa for violating the rules against the spread of Covid. The decision on the Serbian tennis player, an Australian state lawyer, Christopher Tran, has been postponed until after the final hearing on the case, set for next Monday. The Serbian athlete, who arrived to participate in the Australian Open, was blocked yesterday at the airport: authorities found that it would not have provided adequate evidence to meet the requirements to enter Australia, i.e. it would not have produced documentation certifying the right to a legitimate medical exemption from the Covid-19 vaccine.
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Stuck at the airport
deepening
The crazy story of the Djokovic-Australian Open case
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Djokovic landed at Tullamarine airport at 1.30pm Italian time on Wednesday and was detained because his visa was not in order. The Serbian tennis player waited several hours at the airport without being able to move and was interrogated. The border police detained him until the morning in an airport room, together with members of his staff, including Goran Ivanisevic, who posted a photo of the wait on social media. According to local media, the problem concerns the documentation presented by the Serbian to obtain medical exemption from the vaccine and the visa presented by him and the staff, which does not provide medical exemptions for those arriving from abroad.
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The controversy in Australia
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Australian Open, Djokovic’s visa refused: he will be sent off
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Djokovic’s already troubled path to try the assault on his tenth victory at the Australian Open, a tournament “reserved for vaccinated”, did not start in the best way, but which had made an exception for the n.1 in the world. The country’s politicians, in the face of indignation and controversy over the exemption that had been granted to them, have distanced themselves. Already while the Serbian was flying, completely unaware, the controversy was mounting in Australia and the premier, Scott Morrison, also intervened on the question, who threatened to bring the Serbian back “with the first plane” if his exemption from the obligation to vaccine had not been justified. “We await explanations and supporting evidence” of this derogation, he said, adding that “there will be no special rules”.
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Applications for exemption
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Tennis, Djokovic will go to Australian Open thanks to medical exemption
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Australian Open director Craig Tiley urged the tennis player to disclose the reason for his “medical exemption”. His application had been screened by federal and state authorities in Victoria, Tiley said, as had those submitted by 26 other players or staff members out of the approximately 3,000 expected in Australia for various tournaments. Few have achieved it. For months “Nole” had questioned his participation in the Slam Down-Under due to the requirement for players to be vaccinated in order to enter Australia and be able to compete. Djokovic never made clear his vaccination status and, in April last year, he spoke out against compulsory vaccination.
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