Novak Djokavic could not compete in the Australian Open due to him not being vaccinated. After some back and forth with the Australian government, one of the greatest tennis players in the world was deported from the country and had his visa cancelled.

Australia requires foreign travelers to be vaccinated before they can enter the country. Amidst being in Australia looking for his 10th Australian Open title, Djokavic first denied having Covid and also denied knowing it when he went to public events. He also apologized for an apparent false travel declaration, saying that it had been written and submitted by his staff and it was of “human error.” 

Djokavic also added that he had made an “error of judgment” when he did an interview and a photoshoot with a French sports newspaper even after he had tested positive.

On Tuesday December 18th, a French news reporter reported that when working with photographer and journalist, L’Equipe, they were not told that Novak had tested positive for Covid-19.

While he was awaiting full entry into Australia, the Australian Border Force investigated and found some irregularity instances in Novak’s documents pertaining to his recent PCR test, which he took in December. They also looked into the whereabouts in which the star tennis player had been days after he tested positive for Covid. ABF still has not yet determined whether or not his issues will affect his validity of his Australian Visa.

The tennis world, however, has been waiting enough time for the immigration minister of Australia, Alex Hawke, to decide whether or not he wants to use his personal power to deport Novak Djokavic and ban him from the country for three years or let the number one tennis player in the world play in Melbourne for his 10th Australian Open title.

Having arrived in Melbourne the week of January 5th when he got there he had his visa canceled from entering the country due to vaccination policies, but won his legal battle on Monday.

Here’s some words Djokavic had to say about his situation, “I want to address the continuing misinformation about my activities and attendance at events in December in the lead up to my positive PCR Covid test result.”

“This is misinformation which needs to be corrected, particularly in the interest of alleviating broader concern in the community about my presence in Australia, and to address matters which are very hurtful and concerning to my family,” said Djokavic. He continued, “I want to emphasize that I have tried very hard to ensure the safety of everyone and my compliance with testing obligations.”

As of January 14th, 2022, there will be another hearing in court on Saturday in Australia’s federal court about whether they should deport him or not. Appeals from both sides must be submitted by the end of Saturday. Once the appeal hearing is started on Sunday and depending on if it is successful it will allow Djokovic to play in the Australian opening on Monday, January 17th.

As of january 30th 2022 the Australian open did happen and was won by Rafael Nadal.

British tennis star player Andy Murray had a few words after finding out they revoked Djokovic’s visa again. “It’s not a good situation. I’m not going to start kicking Novak while he’s down,” Murray said according to CNN.com. He goes on to say “it’s unfortunate that it’s ended up in this sort of situation.”

Also former Serbian tennis player Victor Troicki said a few things to CNN as well. “There has already been for 10 days a lot of speculation and a lot of different decisions being made by the Australian government and Australian law,” he said. “It’s a lot of confusion. I think it’s more than obvious that it’s a political thing and has nothing to do with sport which is really sad.” 

He added,”It’s really shocking, it’s bad for sport, it’s bad for tennis and I guess it’s bad also for Australia.”

Djocovic did unfortunately lose his appeal on January 16th and got his visa canceled again and got deported as well, he spoke on the matter and told Associated press that it is an “unfortunate event” that he can’t defend his Australian title.

Many people have been speculating about this whole situation, kind of finding it hard who and what to believe, but what really matters is the truth and it’s kind of hard finding what the truth is when the beginning all started with a lie.