Now is the time to call it Djokogate. The total imbroglio between Novak Djokovic and the Australian authorities, against a background of non-vaccination with Covid and political-sporting disagreement, has just offered the first major soap opera of the sports year 2022. Less than two weeks from the start of the Major of Melbourne, its defending champion is the main actor of a funny vaudeville, the outcome of which will probably not be known until Monday, date of the hearing which will rule on the appeal filed by the Serbian player, in order to see his visa be granted again. Back to the twists and turns of this affair.
1November 20, 2021, the decision: participants in the Australian Open must be vaccinated
Bad day for Novak Djokovic. The Serbian has just been eliminated in the semi-finals of the Masters at the end of the season in Turin by the German Alexander Zverev. At the antipodes, thousands of kilometers away, another bad news has darkened the horizon of the world number one. Craig Tiley, director of the Australian Open lifts the veil on the conditions of participation in the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, while the Covid-19 is still raging in Australia. To be a Melbourne Major, participants will need to be vaccinated.
“There is a lot of speculation about the vaccination and to be absolutely clear when the Prime Minister of the State of Victoria announced that everyone at the site should be vaccinated we let the players know. “, says Craig Tiley. Djokovic, who has announced several times his skepticism about vaccination, even his frank reluctance to make it compulsory, accuses the blow. “I was waiting to have precise information. Now that I know, we’ll just wait. We’ll see, we’ll just wait and see.”
/2021/12/22/phpRj4XeO.jpg)
2November 28, 2021, the pressure strike: Djokovic’s father advances the absence of the world number one in Melbourne
Srdjan Djokovic is not the type to make up his feelings and keep his opinion to himself. The father of the world number one reacts to the latest announcements from the bosses of the Australian Open on the Serbian channel Prva TV, and evokes the possible package of his son.
“Of course he would like to go with all his heart, because he is a sportsman and because there are many of our compatriots, the diaspora, there who would be delighted to see Novak. But I don’t know. really not if that will happen. He probably won’t do under these conditions. “ Srdjan Djokovic directly challenges Craig Tiley and Tennis Australia, calling their decision a “blackmail”. The tone rises, the uncertainty with it.
3January 4, 2022, exemption: Novak Djokovic announces his departure for Australia
At the start of 2022, the presence of Novak Djokovic on the Australian courts is still not guaranteed. The Serb has still not communicated his vaccination status. And on December 29, his package for the ATP Cup, the first meeting of the season in Australia, sows a little more doubt on his coming or not to Melbourne.
You have to wait another week, and while almost the entire circuit is already on the island, to see the photo of a Djokovic all smiles on the tarmac on Instagram. “I’m heading for the Down Under, an exemption clearance”, writes the 34-year-old. Everything seems settled: Djokovic is allowed to return to the country.
4January 5, 2022, 6:00 am: Australian leaders demand accountability
While Novak Djokovic is on the plane, in Australia, anger is brewing. The population and the journalists on the spot are wondering, even indignant about the decision to allow the player to arrive on the territory. While he had previously explained that he was quite powerless in the face of the medical confidentiality surrounding the case, Craig Tiley returned to the podium. And at the expense.
“It would certainly be helpful if Novak explained the conditions under which he applied for and obtained an exemption, he declares in front of the media. I encourage him to talk to the community about this. We have been through a very difficult time over the past two years and I would appreciate some responses. “
The affair takes on another dimension and reaches the political sphere. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is following in Tiley’s footsteps, and going even further. “We are waiting for his presentation and for him to provide us with evidence to support his exemption”, he said at a press conference. “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 rules for Novak Djokovic. Not the least.”
5January 5, 2022, 2:00 p.m., the confusion: Djokovic is stranded at the airport for a visa problem
Just over two hours after arriving at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport, Novak Djokovic has still not left the venue. The Age, serious Australian media reveals that the Serb is blocked at the customs for a problem of visa. His teams would not have made the right request to go with his exemption.
The information is confirmed by Jaala Pulford, member of the government of the State of Victoria. The Minister of Employment explains on Twitter that the Victorian state will not provide a visa to the Serbian, as requested by the Australian federal state, and returns the ball to the baseline. Pulford, political opponent of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, points out that issuing visas is a competence of the Australian state, not that of Victoria.
Anything but trivial in the midst of the electoral campaign, in view of the federal elections of 2022, and when the fight between the conservative coalition in power and the Labor Party promises to be very close according to the latest polls.
Update on # AusOpen2022…
The Federal Government has asked if we will support Novak Djokovic’s visa application to enter Australia.
We will not be providing Novak Djokovic with individual visa application support to participate in the 2022 Australian Open Grand Slam.
1/2
– Jaala Pulford MP (@JaalaPulford) January 5, 2022
6January 5, 2022, 10:20 p.m., the sanction: visa withdrawn and expulsion to come for Djokovic
Australia barely wakes up (it’s just 8 a.m. in Melbourne) but the authorities have barely slept, plunging into the Djokovic case. The federal government, through its Minister of Health Greg Hunt, is being firm. The Serbian’s visa is withdrawn, so he is no longer authorized to stay on Australian soil and will be deported as soon as possible.
“Mr Djokovic did not provide the appropriate elements to enter Australia, confirms Home Affairs, Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Foreign nationals who do not have a valid visa or whose visa has been canceled will be detained and deported from Australia “. Already electric, the climate is getting hot, and the Serbian president evokes a “bad treatment” of his champion.
“It’s one rule for all under this Australian government”
Health Minister @GregHuntMP confirms unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic will be sent packing after his visa to enter the country was canceled. pic.twitter.com/IF1Lo4U8ES
– Sunrise (@ sunriseon7) January 5, 2022
7January 6, 7:00 a.m., the protest: Djokovic appeals and gets time
After immediately appealing the decision, the tennis player remains locked up with Australian customs without knowing what his next hours will be. The decision does not come until the end of the day in Melbourne, the Commonwealth government explains that the appeal hearing has been postponed. Novak Djokovic can therefore stay in Australia until this one, scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. local time, at midnight in the night from Sunday to Monday in France. Aleksander Vucic, President of Serbia, talks about “a political hunt“against his compatriot.
The player is currently staying in a refugee quarantine center in the Australian city. His team has until Saturday to provide proof of the validity of the exemption and the visa which has been withdrawn. The possible last twist of a health affair that has turned into psychodrama. As the media The Age reminds us, Djokovic risks up to three years of inadmissibility if his visa was withdrawn, and he had thus entered the country illegally.