The world tennis number one, Novak Djokovic, requested a medical exemption to play the Australian Open without being vaccinated because he contracted Covid-19 last December, his lawyers raised this Saturday before the courts of that country, hours before the resolution of your case.
“The date of the first positive Covid PCR test was December 16, 2021,” their representatives reported in the document presented to the federal court as a defense strategy to annul the revocation of their visa to enter the country. In the brief presented this Saturday, the lawyers also requested that the Serbian be transferred from the Park Hotel in Melbourne, where he has been held since Thursday, to another place with facilities to train for the Aus Open that will begin on January 17.
But beyond the judicial strategy, there is a fact that in itself complicates his defense. On his own social networks, the world number one published photographs of his participation in a public event in Belgrade, without a mask, a day after the supposed positive test, when stamps with his image were presented. The event was completed with awards and awards to young players from their country.
Djokovic awaits the judicial resolution of his case on Monday to be able to enter Australia, after appealing the cancellation of his visa for not being inoculated against the coronavirus. Known against the vaccine, he traveled to Melbourne to play the first Grand Slam of the year after getting a “medical exemption” from the ocean authorities.
However, when he landed in the city of the state of Victoria on Wednesday, he was detained by the immigration staff of the Tullamarine International Airport due to a problem with his visa.
Australian Border Force (ABF) agents escorted him to an air station office, where the tennis player was interrogated for 8 hours without access to his cell phone, his lawyers reported today.
The incident turned into a diplomatic scandal when Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the Australian authorities of “mistreatment” and “political hunting”.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison clarified that Djokovic did not provide evidence of having the full vaccination or justification for being exempted from it. “The rules are the rules, especially when it comes to our borders. No one is above the rules,” he warned.
Since Thursday, groups of fans have gathered at the Park Hotel in Melbourne to demand the release of the tennis player. The facility, used as a quarantine center for the past year, also houses detainees who were transferred from the islands of Manus and Naur.
There were also demonstrations in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, organized by the tennis player’s family. His father Srdjan Djokovic compared him to Jesus Christ and considered that Novak “is being crucified.”
Djokovic, 34, came to Australia after announcing that he had obtained a sanitary permit to play the Open in search of his 10th title and to break the record of 20 Grand Slams that he now shares with the Swiss Roger Federer and the Spanish Rafael Nadal .
In the past, the number 1 of the ATP ranking made public his opposition to the coronavirus vaccine and repeatedly refused to confirm whether he had been inoculated as an act of personal reserve. The Australian Open requires that all participants must be vaccinated or have an exemption granted by two independent expert committees.
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