Novak Djokovic prepares to take his seat on the plane bound for Belgrade in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Djokovic was deported from Australia on Sunday after losing an application to stay in the country to defend his Australian Open title despite not being vaccinated against COVID-19.
Photo: picture alliance/dpa/AP. All rights reserved.
Novak Djokovic’s entry drama is set to become part of a Netflix documentary. After much back and forth, the tennis star was recently denied entry to Australia. As a result, the athlete cannot take part in the Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne. The reason for this was the attempt to enter the country as a corona unvaccinated person.
Netflix is currently producing a documentary that takes a look behind the scenes at various tennis tournaments. The events surrounding Djokovic’s denied entry to Australia should also be examined. However, to what extent the streaming giant’s camera crew actually had access to the famous tennis player is unknown.
Originally, the athlete wanted to enter with a medical exemption
Djokovic is currently number one in the world rankings. The Serb actually wanted to defend his title at the current Australian Open and then become the sole Grand Slam leader with 21 Grand Slam titles (Federer and Nadal have 20). He is not vaccinated and entered the country on a medical exemption. However, when he arrived at the airport, his visa was rejected. A subsequent lawsuit by the tennis player against deportation was also unsuccessful. On January 16, 2022 he had to leave Australia.
According to Australian law, Djokovic is also not allowed to travel Down Under for the next three years. So he would fail at the local tennis tournaments during this time. However, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicated that this decision is not set in stone.
+++This article first appeared on rollingstone.de+++