Serbian
tennis
player
Novak
Djokovic
walks in
Melbourne
Airport
before
boarding
a
flight,
after
the
Federal
Court
upheld a
government
decision
to
cancel
his visa
to play
in the
Australian
Open, in
Melbourne,
Australia,
January
16,
2022.
(REUTERS/Loren
Elliott)
A person
walks
through
Melbourne
Park in
the
lead-up
to the
Australian
Open in
Melbourne,
Australia,
January
12,
2022.
REUTERS/Loren
Elliott
Djokovic
leaving
Australia
after
losing
deportation
appeal
By
ROD
McGUIRK apnews.com
MELBOURNE,
Australia
- Novak
Djokovic
left
Australia
on
Sunday
evening
after
losing
his
final
bid to
avoid
deportation
and play
in the
Australian
Open
despite
being
unvaccinated
for
COVID-19.
A court
earlier
unanimously
dismissed
the No.
1-ranked
tennis
player’s
challenge
to
cancel
his
visa.
Djokovic,
a
34-year-old
from
Serbia,
said he
was
“extremely
disappointed”
by the
ruling
but
respected
it.
A
masked
Djokovic
was
photographed
in an
Melbourne
airport
lounge
with two
government
officials
in black
uniforms.
He left
on an
Emirates
flight
to
Dubai,
the same
United
Arab
Emirates
city he
flew to
Australia
from.
He
has won
a record
nine
Australian
Open
titles,
including
three in
a row,
but this
time
won’t
even get
the
chance
to try.
“I
respect
the
Court’s
ruling
and I
will
cooperate
with the
relevant
authorities
in
relation
to my
departure
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
on
arrival
at
Mebourne’s
airport
on Jan.
6.
“I
hope
that we
can all
now
focus on
the game
and
tournament
I love,”
he said.
The
national
federation
that
runs the
tournament,
Tennis
Australia,
said it
respects
the
decision
of the
Federal
Court.
“We look
forward
to a
competitive
and
exciting
Australian
Open
2022 and
wish all
players
the best
of
luck,”
it said
in a
statement.
A
deportation
order
also
usually
includes
a
three-year
ban on
returning
to
Australia.
In
Serbia,
President
Aleksandar
Vucic
said the
hearing
was “a
farce
with a
lot of
lies.”
Novak
Djokovic
has been
deported
from
Australia
ahead of
the
Australian
Open
after
the full
federal
court
dismissed
the
world No
1’s bid
to
restore
his
visa.
Novak
Djokovic
fans
dismayed
after
court
upholds
visa
cancellation
– video
“They
think
that
they
humiliated
Djokovic
with
this
10-day
harassment,
and they
actually
humiliated
themselves.
If you
said
that the
one who
was not
vaccinated
has no
right to
enter,
Novak
would
not come
or would
be
vaccinated,”
Vucic
told
reporters.
He
said he
told
Djokovic
after
talking
to him
“that we
can’t
wait to
see him
in
Serbia,
to
return
to his
country,
to come
where he
is
always
welcome.”
He
did not
say
whether
Djokovic
said he
would
first go
to
Serbia
after
his
deportation.
Chief
Justice
James
Allsop
said the
ruling
came
down to
whether
the
minister’s
decision
was
“irrational
or
legally
unreasonable.”
Hawke
welcomed
the
decision.
His
office
did not
immediately
provide
detail
of how
or when
Djokovic
would
leave.
“Australia’s
strong
border
protection
policies
have
kept us
safe
during
the
pandemic,
resulting
in one
of the
lowest
death
rates,
strongest
economic
recoveries,
and
highest
vaccination
rates in
the
world,”
Hawke
said.
“Strong
border
protection
policies
are also
fundamental
to
safe-guarding
Australia’s
social
cohesion
which
continues
to
strengthen
despite
the
pandemic,”
he
added.
Prime
Minister
Scott
Morrison
welcomed
what he
described
as the
“decision
to keep
our
borders
strong
and keep
Australians
safe.”
But
opposition
spokesperson
on the
home
affairs
portfolio,
Kristina
Keneally,
said
Djokovic
was
being
deported
for what
he said
and did
publicly
overseas
before
the
government
gave him
a visa
in
November.
“This
mess
isn’t a
failure
of our
laws.
It’s a
failure
of
Morrison’s
competence
&
leadership,”
Keneally
tweeted.
The
pandemic
response
has
become
politically
charged
with
Morrison’s
conservative
coalition
seeking
a fourth
three-year
term at
elections
due by
May.
Infection
rates
have
soared
across
much of
Australian
since
December
when
Morrison’s
government
relaxed
what had
been
some of
the
democratic
world’s
toughest
restrictions
on
international
travel.
“I
will now
be
taking
some
time to
rest and
to
recuperate,
before
making
any
further
comments
beyond
this,”
he said.
The
court
process
that
Djokovic
had
hoped
would
keep his
aspirations
alive
for a
21st
Grand
Slam
title
was
extraordinarily
fast by
Australian
standards.
Within
three
hours of
Hawke’s
announcement
on
Friday
afternoon
that
Djokovic’s
visa was
canceled,
his
lawyers
went
before a
Federal
Circuit
and
Family
Court
judge to
initiate
their
challenge
to the
decision.
The case
was
elevated
to the
Federal
Court on
Saturday
and
submissions
were
filed by
both
sides
that
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
Hawke’s
assessment
that he
was
considered
a
“talisman
of a
community
of
anti-vaccination
sentiment.”
Hawke’s
lawyer
Stephen
Lloyd
took aim
at
Djokovic’s
anti-vaccination
stance
and his
“history
of
ignoring
COVID
safety
measures.”
Lloyd
raised
the
example
of
Djokovic
giving a
French
newspaper
journalist
an
interview
last
month
while he
was
infected
with
COVID-19
and
taking
off his
mask
during a
photo
shoot.
Djokovic
has
acknowledged
the
interview
was an
error of
judgment.
The
minister
canceled
the visa
on the
grounds
that
Djokovic’s
presence
in
Australia
may be a
risk to
the
health
and
“good
order”
of the
Australian
public
and “may
be
counterproductive
to
efforts
at
vaccination
by
others
in
Australia.”
Djokovic’s
visa was
initially
canceled
on Jan.
6 by a
border
official
who
decided
he
didn’t
qualify
for a
medical
exemption
from
Australia’s
rules
for
unvaccinated
visitors.
He was
exempted
from the
tournament’s
vaccine
rules
because
he had
been
infected
with the
virus
within
the
previous
six
months.
Vasek
Pospisil,
a
Canadian
who won
the 2014
Wimbledon
men’s
doubles
title
and has
worked
with
Djokovic
to form
an
association
to
represent
players,
tweeted:
“There
was a
political
agenda
at play
here
with the
(Australian)
elections
coming
up which
couldn’t
be more
obvious.
This is
not his
fault.
He did
not
force
his way
into the
country
and did
not
‘make
his own
rules’;
he was
ready to
stay
home.”
Pospisil
wrote
that
Djokovic
wouldn’t
have
tried to
go to
Australia
at all
and
“been
home
with his
family”
had he
not
received
the
medical
exemption.
Djokovic
has won
nine
Australian
Open
titles,
including
three in
a row,
and a
total of
20 Grand
Slam
singles
trophies,
tied
with
rivals
Roger
Federer
and
Rafael
Nadal
for the
most in
the
history
of men’s
tennis.
Djokovic’s
dominance
of late
has been
particularly
impressive,
winning
four of
the last
seven
major
tournaments
and
finishing
as the
runner-up
at two
others.
The
only
time he
did not
get at
least to
the
final in
that
span was
at the
2020
U.S.
Open,
where he
was
disqualified
in the
fourth
round
for
hitting
a ball
that
inadvertently
hit a
line
judge in
the
throat
after a
game.
Because
Djokovic
has
withdrawn
from the
tournament
after
Monday’s
schedule
was
released,
he has
been
replaced
in the
field by
what’s
known as
a “lucky
loser” —
a player
who
loses in
the
qualifying
tournament
but gets
into the
main
draw
because
of
another
player’s
exit
before
competition
has
started.
That
player
is
Italian
Salvatore
Caruso,
who is
ranked
150th in
the
world.
___
Associated
Press
writers
John Pye
in
Melbourne,
Australia,
Howard
Fendrich
in
Washington
D.C.,
and
Dusan
Stojanovic
in
Belgrade,
Serbia,
contributed
to this
report.