Novak Djokovic was left out of the Australian Open: the Federal Court confirmed the cancellation of his visa and he will be deported

It’s official. Around 6:00 p.m. on Sunday (4:00 a.m. in Argentina), less than 24 hours before the start of the Australian Open, the Federal Court of that country decided that Novak Djokovic, the number 1 in men’s tennis won’t be able to play the first Grand Slam of the season and should return to his country as soon as possible.

The president of the Supreme Court, James Allsop, was the one who announced the ruling on behalf of a court made up of himself and two other judges, at the end of a day that had begun on the Australian Sunday morning, with a hearing in which Novak Djokovic sought to reverse the cancellation of his visa -for the second time-, decided by the Australian Ministry of Immigration. But the decision was “unanimous”, and the tennis player, in addition, must pay the legal costs of the litigation.

At 9:43 p.m. in Australia (7:43 a.m. Argentine time), after allowing him to remove his belongings from the Park Hotel, the player arrived at Melbourne airport, accompanied by federal police. They took him to a VIP lounge, where he awaits the departure of his flight to Serbia, via Dubai, according to the Australian press. The departure time was scheduled for 22.30 (Australian time).

After presenting the corresponding arguments, the court withdrew to deliberate, and in the Australian afternoon announced a “unappealable” ruling, as had been previously arranged. With the confirmation of the cancellation arranged by the Ministry, Djokovic will not be able to stay in Australia and in the next few hours his deportation will proceed.

Djokovic had been detained for the second time on Saturday by immigration authorities, after his case to prevent Australia from deporting him for not being vaccinated against Covid reached three higher court judges. The hearing before the Federal Court had been set for Sunday, one day before the date on which the tennis player number 1 in the ranking had to play his first match of the year at the Australian Open, in which he is the defending champion and He has crowned nine times.

Even, the organization of the tournament published the program of matches for Monday, in which Djokovic appeared in the night session, in which he would have to face his compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic. However, the ruling of the Justice determines that the first Grand Slam of 2022 is left without its greatest figure.

Shortly after, Djokovic issued a statement: “I would like to make a brief statement about the results of today’s court hearing. Now I’ll take some time to rest and recover, before making more comments about what happened. I’m very disappointed with the error of the Court to dismiss my request for a review of the Minister’s decision to cancel my visa, which means that I cannot stay in Australia and participate in the Open. I respect the Court’s ruling and will cooperate with the authorities in connection with my departure from the country.

“It’s uncomfortable that the focus for the past few weeks has been on me and I hope that now we can all focus on the game and the tournament that I love. I want to wish the players, officials, staff, volunteers and fans all the best for the tournament,” added Djokovic.

The three judges of the Federal Court supported the decision that Immigration Minister Alex Hawke had taken on Friday to cancel the Serbian athlete’s visa, “for reasons of public interest.” In the next few hours, the considerations of the resolution will be known. It is not yet clear whether the deportation will be accompanied by a three-year ban on returning to Australia, meaning that Djokovic could not return until the age of 37 to the tournament that he won nine times and that could have given him his 21st Grand Slam title.

For the second visa cancellation, Hawke determined that Djokovic’s presence in Australia could pose “a risk to the health and order” of the population and “could backfire on the vaccination efforts of others in Australia,” seeing him as an “influential” figure in promoting the anti-vaccine movement.

On Sunday, in court, the Serb’s lawyers described the detention and deportation of their client as “illogical”, “irrational” and “unreasonable”. The government “doesn’t know what Mr. Djokovic’s views are at the moment,” argued lawyer Nick Wood, stating that his client had never publicly supported the anti-vaccine movement. But the government representative, Stephen Lloyd, disputed that the fact that the champion was not vaccinated almost two years after the start of the pandemic, and its repeated disregard for health standards, including the fact that not isolate yourself when you knew you were infected, were proof enough of his position.

Djokovic’s visa had been canceled for the first time on January 6 at the Melbourne airport, as he had just disembarked to start his preparation for the first Grand Slam of 2022. That decision came when an official from the Australian Border Force concluded that the number 1 in the ranking did not meet the health requirements for the medical exemption to Australian laws on vaccination of travelers entering that country.

For the first time in a long time, the organization of the Australian Open delayed the publication of the schedule of matches on the first day of action, which he finally held at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, a couple of hours before the verdict was known. Now, Djokovic’s place in the main draw will be taken by a player defeated in the last round of qualifying, known as lucky loser (lucky loser); in this case, the one who had that luck was and the Italian Salvatore Caruso, 150th in the world ranking. If Djokovic’s withdrawal had taken place with more margin, the table for the men’s competition could have been rearranged, but with the game program already established, the lucky loser directly enters as a replacement; thus, Caruso will be the one who will play against Kecmanovic, but no longer in the central court, but in a secondary stadium.