Australian Open: Novak Djokovic wins court battle to have his entry visa reinstated

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Novak Djokovic has won an appeal in the Australian Court to have his entry visa reinstated.

The Judge took less than a day to conclude that Australian Border Force officials did not follow correct procedures when they cancelled the Serbian’s entry visa when he arrived in the country last Wednesday evening and ordered his immediate release.

The world’s number one male tennis player received a medical exemption from Tennis Australia to play in next week’s Australian Open on the grounds that he had contracted Covid-19 in December 2021 and therefore did not require to be vaccinated against the virus.

Australian Border officials, however, claimed last week that Djokovic’s visa was cancelled because insufficient evidence was provided from the Serbian upon arriving at Melbourne Airport to prove that he was not a threat to health and safety from being unvaccinated.

With that being said, during court proceedings, Judge Kelly asked why the Tennis Australia document was not accepted by the Border official.

“Here, a professor and an eminently qualified physician has produced and provided to the applicant a medical exemption. Further to that, the medical exemption and the basis on which it was given was separately given by a further independent expert specialist panel established by the Victorian state government and that document was in the hands of the delegate. What more could this man have done?”

Djokovic’s lawyers also provided evidence of an email the Serbian had received before travelling to Melbourne from the Australian Home Affairs Department confirming that his claim for a medical exemption to enter the country had been assessed and accepted.

Transcripts from the Border Officials interrogation of the 34-year-old tennis player in the early hours of last Thursday morning also highlighted those correct procedures were not followed and fair treatment was not applied when cancelling the entry visa.

Despite providing the evidence from Tennis Australia and the Australian Home Affairs Department, Border Officials requested further information and agreed with Djokovic that he could go to sleep at 4am and wait until 8:30 to speak to his lawyers and Tennis Australia.

However, following a shift change in the border officials, the Serbian was woken up at 6am and was urged not to get in touch with his lawyers and that it would be in his interests to complete his interview without them.

Shortly before the previously agreed time of 8:30 and without contact with outside parties to corroborate his story or provide additional evidence, Border Officials cancelled Djokovic’s entry visa at 7:40. They also failed to give any details as to why they did so, contrary to proper procedures.

Within hours of the Judge’s decision to reinstate his visa, the current Australian Open Champion was back practising on court at the Rod Laver Arena and posted a picture of himself with his coaching team on Twitter.

 

With less than a week to go until the 2022 Australian Open starts next Monday, it will be interesting to see if both the physical and mental disruption to the tennis star’s preparation over the past five days, spent in a very poor-conditioned immigration hotel without access to a tennis court or gym, will impact Djokovic’s chances of winning a record 21st Grand Slam title.

It will also be interesting to see how the Australian tennis crowds react to Djokovic next week given the level of local anger on social media as to why the mega-star has been allowed to bypass apparent strict vaccination requirements to enter the country.

Questions will be asked as to the mishandling of the Serbian’s entry visa by Australian Border Force officials, the Victoria State Government, Tennis Australia as well as the Federal Government.

Also, questions will now start to be raised over the cancellations of the visas of two others who were originally allowed entry into Australia to take part in the tennis competition next week. Czech doubles player Renata Voracova along with a currently unnamed official were suddenly forced to leave Australia after being granted similar medical exemptions to Djokovic’s on the grounds of recently contracting COVID-19.

There could also be another twist in the 34-year-old’s case as Australia’s Immigration Minister Alex Hawke says he has not ruled out invoking his ministerial power and re-cancelling the tennis star’s visa.

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