With that, the case around the twenty-time grand slam winner will in any case drag on for a while. Djokovic traveled to Australia last week on the assumption that because of evidence of a recent corona infection he could ‘just’ participate in the Australian Open, which starts Monday.
Once in Australia, he was detained at the airport after his visa was declared invalid; the Serb could not give a good reason why he had not been vaccinated and the evidence of his recent infection proved insufficient for a medical exemption.
Right from judge
Then Djokovic went to court to avoid eviction. He was right, partly because the head of the medical service of the Australian tennis association said he had a “medical exception from corona vaccination” because of his recent infection.
The association was found to have incorrectly informed players and the Australian judge ruled that the government had acted unreasonably.
But it is still questionable whether Djokovic can actually participate in the Australian Open because of the error on his entry form and the fact that the immigration minister can also deport him based on his personal authority.
Djokovic emphasized in his Instagram post that he would not comment further on his current situation “out of respect for the Australian government and the current process”. It is the first time he has spoken out so widely since his arrival in Australia, saying he wants to correct the “persistent misinformation” about his person that he believes is hurtful to his family.
Infected in the photo
In the message, Djokovic also discusses the ambiguities surrounding his infection. The infection was registered on December 16, but around this date he was still regularly seen in public and had another interview and photo shoot with the French sports newspaper L’Equipe.
Djokovic writes that on December 14 he was present at a basketball game in Belgrade where a number of people turned out to be infected. As a precaution, he had a PCR test taken on December 16, even though he said he had no complaints.
He did attend a children’s tennis event on December 17 after multiple negative self-tests. Then he got his PCR test back positive. He did, however, let the appointment with L’Equipe continue on December 18, even though he knew that he was infected at the time.
“I did not want to disappoint the journalist,” writes Djokovic, who emphasizes that he has kept his distance at all times. “When I came home after the interview and started the mandatory isolation period, this was, in retrospect, an error of judgment,” says the tennis player.
