The tennis season has just returned, and fans are excited to see the top players in the world compete, except the world’s number one player, Novak Djokovic. Djokovic ran into some trouble with the highly esteemed Australian Open and was consequently disqualified from participating.
Novak Djokovic has won the Australian Open the most times and holds nine titles overall, three of which he won the last three years in a row.
While traveling around the world is one of the many wonders of the ATP Tour (Association of Tennis Professionals), this year it has presented some complications for players and their teams. The first of the four prestigious Grand Slam tournaments, The Australian Open, always kicks off the year of tennis tournaments, but in early January it was faced with a heated issue.
Australia has been one of the countries with the strictest borders and travel restrictions, affecting the tournament’s attendees. The country requires travelers to provide proof of vaccination and a travel declaration amongst other things. Players that fail to meet the traveling requirements would not be admitted into the country and as a result miss out on the first Grand Slam.
Novak Djokovic, one of the players affected by these requirements, flew into Melbourne, Australia on January 5th with a medical exemption from two independent health panels, one done by Tennis Australia and the other by the state government of Victoria. However, he was detained by the Australian Border Force and his Visa was revoked.
As news of his detainment spread around the world, there were several people who went on social media to express their concerns regarding the tennis star.
“I told our Novak that the whole of Serbia is with him and that our bodies are doing everything to see that the harassment of the world’s best tennis player is brought to an end immediately. In line with all norms of international law, Serbia will fight for Novak, truth and justice. Novak is strong, as we all know,” said the Serbian president, Aleksander Vucic on an Instagram post.
Shortly after, Djokovic appealed the cancellation at the virtual court hearing on January 10th on the basis that he had recently contracted COVID-19 the past month. The judge reinstated his Visa and after 5 days of being in immigration detention he was released and had a chance to compete for his 10th title in Australia.
This victory for Djokovic was short-lived however, the Immigration Minister Alex Hawke stepped in and used his power to cancel Djokovic’s Visa once again. This was taken to a three-judge panel and on Sunday January 16th, a day before the tournament was scheduled to begin the panel decided “it was in the public’s best interest” to revoke the Visa. Novak Djokovic was then deported and officially removed from the Australian Open.
This outcome prevented Djokovic from the chance of winning his 21st Grand Slam title, which would have bumped him above his rivals, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, making him number one the leaderboard all around.
The results of these events have created controversy within the tennis community, and many are now questioning how future tournaments will handle their COVID-19 requirements. Vaccines have always been a delicate topic and now all eyes are set on the upcoming French Open.
