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The Serbian champion confirmed on Wednesday that he had obtained the visa he was negotiating with the Australian government to be able to travel to Melbourne for the next Australian Open in January. During the last edition, refusing the vaccine against Covid-19, he was expelled before the start of the tournament. The player had received a three-year inadmissibility.
Novak Djokovic confirmed, Wednesday, November 16, to have received a visa to go to Melbourne next January and play the Australian Open there, despite the inadmissibility he was struck after his expulsion last January , for lack of an anti-Covid vaccine.
“I was very happy to receive the news yesterday (Tuesday). It’s a relief,” said the Serb on the sidelines of the end-of-year ATP Masters in Turin.
The next Australian Open, the first round of the 2023 Grand Slam, is scheduled for January 16-29.
The end of a legal battle
On Tuesday, Australian media reported that national authorities had decided to grant a visa to the former world No. 1, record holder of nine titles in Melbourne.
At the start of the year, Djokovic, not vaccinated against Covid-19, had been detained on his arrival in Melbourne and then expelled just before the start of the tournament, after a legal battle over his visa.
Australia has since lifted the requirement for visitors to present proof of Covid vaccination, but the player was also banned from entering the territory for three years.
This latest measure can be reversed at the discretion of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left government, which took over from the then-ruling conservative coalition.
With AFP
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