Tennis. Novak Djokovic stranded at Melbourne airport over visa issue

Australian Open (January 17-30)

All smiles to announce his departure for Melbourne on his Instagram account Tuesday, Novak Djokovic was disillusioned upon his arrival in Australia. According to the Australian press, the nine-time winner of the Australian Open wouldn't have stuffed out the proper type to use for a visa and the visa he requested doesn't authorize a medical exemption. The federal customs service contacted the federal government of the state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, when the Djokovic camp observed its error, explains the every day newspaper The Age. But this request was rebutted, says Jaala Pulford, a minister of the state of Victoria.

“The federal government has asked us if we support Novak Djokovic's visa application to enter Australia. We will not give our approval to this request (…) We have always been clear on two points: the study of visa applications is a prerogative of the federal government and medical exemptions a prerogative of doctors ”, she defined. on Twitter.

“In the first plane”

Djokovic, silent on his vaccination standing, was already within the crosshairs of the Australian political class since he introduced that he had obtained a medical exemption to take part within the Australian Open (January 17-30). “We are waiting for his presentation and for him to provide us with evidence to support” this waiver, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison mentioned at a press convention. ” If this evidence is insufficient, then he will not be treated any differently from anyone else, and he will return home on the first plane. There will be no special rule for Novak Djokovic. Not the least ”, insisted the Prime Minister.

“It will surely be helpful if Novak defined the situations beneath which he requested and obtained an exemption,” Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley, also director of the first Grand Slam of the year, also told reporters on Wednesday.

“I encourage him to talk to the community about this… We have been going through a very difficult time over the past two years and I would appreciate some responses to that,” he added.

“Not for vaccines”

The Australian tennis boss, however, said that the world No. 1 had received no preferential treatment to obtain this exemption, during a process supervised by the Australian authorities and those of the State of Victoria. A total of 26 players or members of their staff, out of the 3,000 expected in Australia, have requested an exemption and only a few of them have obtained it, he revealed. According to Mr. Tiley, the two commissions responsible for examining exemption requests do so without knowing the identity of the applicants.

Already winner of 20 Grand Slams, like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic is aiming for a record 21st title in Melbourne. The Australian Open, which begins on January 17, is his favorite tournament: it is in Melbourne that the Serbian won his first Grand Slam (2008), and no one has won there as much as him (nine victories ).

For months, “Nole” had cast doubt on his participation in the first Grand Slam of the year, due to the obligation for players to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter Australia.

The world No. 1 was expressed in April 2020 against compulsory vaccination, then considered to allow the resumption of tournaments. “Personally, I am not for vaccines. I wouldn't want someone to force me to get vaccinated to travel. “

He lastly introduced Tuesday that he had obtained a medical exemption permitting him to make the journey to Australia. The nation's laws present for this sort of exemption in 5 particular circumstances (having contracted Covid-19 within the earlier six months, critical medical contraindication …) however the federation, invoking medical confidentiality, refused to say which utilized to Djokovic.

This choice sparked an uproar in Australia, the place the measures put in place to battle Covid-19 have been significantly strict for the reason that begin of the pandemic.

It is a few “spitting in the face of any inhabitant of the State of Victoria and any Australian”, specifically wrote the previous tennis participant Sam Groth, turn out to be commentator on tv, in an article printed by the every day newspaper Melbourne Herald Sun.

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