Melbourne Jan. 16 (BNA): Novak Djokovic’s latest attempt to avoid deportation and play in the Australian Open despite not being vaccinated against COVID-19 ended Sunday when a court unanimously rejected the top-seeded tennis player’s challenge in a government minister’s decision. to cancel his visa.
Djokovic, 34, of Serbia, said he was “very disappointed” with the decision but respected it, according to the Associated Press.
He has won nine Australian Open titles, including three in a row, but this time he won’t have the chance to try.
“I respect the court’s ruling and will cooperate with the relevant authorities regarding my exit from the country,” he said in a statement.
Djokovic said he was “uncomfortable” that the focus had been on him since his visa was first canceled upon his arrival at Maibourne Airport on January 6.
“I hope we can all now focus on the game and the tournament that I love,” he said.
The decision likely means that Djokovic will remain in Melbourne custody until he is deported.
The tournament’s national governing body, Tennis Australia, said it respected the federal court’s decision. “We look forward to the competitive and exciting 2022 Australian Open and wish all players the best of luck,” she said in a statement.
Deportation usually occurs as soon as possible after an order is issued unless prevented by a lawsuit. The government did not say when Djokovic would leave. A deportation order usually also includes a three-year ban on returning to Australia.
In Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic said the session was “a farce with a lot of lies”.
“They think they insulted Djokovic with this 10-day harassment, and they have already humiliated themselves. If you say that a person who has not been vaccinated has no right to enter, Novak will not come or he will be vaccinated,” Vucic told reporters.
He said he told Djokovic after speaking to him, “We can’t wait to see him in Serbia, to go home, to come where he’s always welcome.”
He did not say whether Djokovic said he would go to Serbia first after being deported.
Chief Justice James Olsop said the ruling was due to whether the minister’s decision was “unreasonable or legally unreasonable”.
Hook welcomed the decision. His office did not immediately provide details of how and when Djokovic would leave.
“Strong Australian border protection policies have kept us safe during the pandemic, resulting in one of the lowest death rates, the strongest economic recovery and the highest vaccination rates in the world,” Hook said.
“Strong border protection policies are also key to protecting Australian social cohesion that continues to strengthen despite the pandemic,” he added.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed what he described as a “decision to keep our borders strong and keep Australians safe”.
But the opposition spokeswoman for the Home Affairs portfolio, Kristina Keneally, said Djokovic was deported for what he said and did publicly abroad before the government granted him a visa in November.
“This chaos is not a failure of our laws. Kennelly tweeted.
The response to the pandemic has become politically fraught with Morrison’s conservative coalition seeking a fourth three-year term in elections scheduled for May.
Infection rates have risen in many parts of Australia since December, when the Morrison government eased what had been one of the world’s strictest democratic restrictions on international travel.
Djokovic will likely appeal to the Supreme Court, but not in time to compete in the Australian Championship.
“I will now take some time to rest and recover, before making any other comments,” he said.
The court proceedings that Djokovic hoped to keep his aspirations alive to win a 21st Grand Slam title were extraordinarily fast by Australian standards.
Within three hours of Hook’s announcement on Friday afternoon that Djokovic’s visa was revoked, his attorneys went before a federal circuit judge and family court to begin their appeals against the decision. The case was taken to federal court on Saturday and the submissions were filed by both sides on the same day.
The three judges heard the case over five hours on Sunday and announced their verdict two hours later.
There was evidence that Djokovic was to be deported based on Hooke’s assessment that he was seen as “a mascot of a community of anti-vaccination sentiment”.
Hook’s lawyer, Stephen Lloyd, has criticized Djokovic’s anti-vaccination stance and his “history of ignoring COVID-19 safety measures”.
Lloyd raised the example of Djokovic who gave a French newspaper interview last month while he had COVID-19 and took off his mask while taking a photo. Djokovic admitted that the interview was a miscalculation.
The minister canceled the visa on the grounds that Djokovic’s presence in Australia could pose a risk to the health and safety of the Australian public and “might have an adverse effect on vaccination efforts by others in Australia”.
Djokovic’s visa was initially revoked on January 6 by a border official who decided he did not qualify for a medical exemption from Australia’s rules for unvaccinated visitors. He was excluded from the tournament’s vaccination rules because he had contracted the virus within the past six months.
Vasek Pospisil, a Canadian who won the men’s doubles title at Wimbledon in 2014 and worked with Djokovic to form a union to represent the players, tweeted: “There was a political agenda here with the (Australian) election coming up which couldn’t be more clear. It’s not his fault. He didn’t work He made his way to the country and did not “make his own rules”; he was ready to stay at home.”
Pospisil wrote that Djokovic would never have attempted to go to Australia and “was at home with his family” had it not been for the medical exemption.
Djokovic won nine Australian Open titles, including three in a row, and a total of 20 Grand Slam titles, tied with rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the most in men’s tennis history.
Djokovic’s recent dominance has been particularly impressive, winning four of his last seven majors and finishing second in two other tournaments.
The only time he didn’t make at least a final in that period was at the 2020 US Open, where he was disqualified in the fourth round for hitting a ball that inadvertently hit a linear referee in the throat after a match.
As Djokovic withdrew from the tournament after Monday’s schedule was released, he was replaced on the court by what’s known as a “lucky loser” – a player who lost in the qualifying tournament but entered the main draw because another player had gone out before. The competition has begun.
This player is Italian Salvatore Caruso, ranked 150 in the world.