Melbourne (AP) – In a green tracksuit and a white face mask, Novak Djokovic sat in the back seat of a car, cameras pointed at him.
Shortly before the start of the Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne, which begins on Monday, the Serbian top star returned to custody in his entry drama and waited in the deportation hotel for the likely decisive court hearing. There are still pictures that resemble a crime thriller and have nothing to do with sporting successes, as the 34-year-old Serb in Australia would actually wish for.
Competitors increasingly annoyed
His competitors are increasingly annoyed by the entry drama of the defending champion as the dominant topic. On Sunday there should now be clarity as to whether Djokovic will compete at the Australian Open a day later or whether he has to leave the country again. A court hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. local time.
Djokovic’s visa has been declared invalid twice, and his lawyers have taken action against it twice. As the Australian news agency AAP reported, the hearing is scheduled to take place on Sunday before three judges. According to the Federal Court of Australia, the case will be heard by Presiding Judge James Allsop and his colleagues Anthony Besanko and David O’Callaghan. According to the report, after a decision by three judges, no appeals can be made against the verdict.
“If he ends up playing, ok. If he doesn’t play, the Australian Open will be great Australian Open – with or without him,” said Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal, who admitted he was a bit fed up with the topic. It is clear that Djokovic is one of the best tennis players in history. “But no tennis player in history is more important than the event.” That Nadal is returning to the Grand Slam stage after his protracted foot injury and how Djokovic could win his 21st Grand Slam title is just a side issue in Melbourne these days.
Zverev takes sides
Olympic champion Alexander Zverev spoke out in favor of the top seed and world number one participating in the Australian Open. “I understand the perspective of the Australians and the government,” said the world number three from Hamburg: “The Australian government and the government of Victoria should have known in advance what was going to happen, I think it’s not very fair for a person to come here and not be able to play.”
Other top professionals express less encouragement. “I’m here to talk about tennis, not about Novak Djokovic,” said Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who had previously expressed himself as a Djokovic critic: “It got a lot of attention. There wasn’t much talk about tennis in the last two weeks, which is a shame.”
In the previous week, the authorities had refused entry to the unvaccinated Djokovic. The record champion of the Australian Open then spent four nights at the Park Hotel in Melbourne’s Carlton district, to which he was brought back on Saturday, according to Australian media reports. The first court decision last Monday was in his favour, Djokovic then trained for the first Grand Slam tournament of the season.
His visa was invalidated a second time in a personal decision by Immigration Secretary Alex Hawke on Friday. On Saturday, the court detailed the reasons for this in a published 268-page letter. While Hawke sees a “negligible” risk that Djokovic could infect others, he argued that staying could “endanger the health of the Australian community”.
The Australian government argued, according to court documents, that the unvaccinated tennis pro’s presence in the country could encourage “anti-vaccination sentiment”. With a brief procedural hearing before Judge O’Callaghan, the trial continued on Saturday, with the time set for Sunday.
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