Novak Djokovic visa saga: how the tennis world reacted

Figures from across the tennis world have weighed in on the controversy surrounding Novak Djokovic’s entry – and now hotel detention – in Australia, as the world number one awaits a court ruling on his entry visa after his vaccine exemption was revoked.
Subscribe to Guardian Sport ► http://bit.ly/GDNSport

The 34-year-old is being held in isolation at the Park Hotel in Carlton, Melbourne, awaiting the outcome of an appeal against the decision to cancel the reigning Australian Open champion’s entry visa and deport him.

Players offered a range of views about Djokovic’s predicament. ‘In some way, I feel sorry for him. But at the same time, he knew the conditions since a lot of months ago, so he makes his own decision,’ said the Spanish player Rafael Nadal.

Novak Djokovic not being held ‘captive’ and free to leave whenever he chooses, Australia says ► https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/07/australian-open-players-given-exemptions-similar-to-novak-djokovic-under-investigation

The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://support.theguardian.com/contribute

Website ► https://www.theguardian.com
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/theguardian
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/guardian
Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/guardian

source

spot_imgspot_img

Subscribe

Related articles

spot_imgspot_img

40 COMMENTS

  1. Australian Closed 2022 is the biggest insult to sport in tennis history same for Wimbledon , but karma came for politics covid triple boosted 2022 ‘’Champ’’this year when he lost second round to burger mcdonald proving that he wouldnt have won it if Nole was allowed and he just dropped out of top 5 while real defending Champ and king of AO with a spine won it this year for the 10th time in convincing fashion and reclaimed his world no.1 !!!

  2. 1:24 no one got an exemption cause no one else really tried… at least not at the professional level. 10-0 when competing in the tournament. Certainly leveled the playing field by him not being there. 0:17 that’s the public’s fault for letting your government make that choice

  3. The reactions of the entire British team when Jamie Murray says if it were him he wouldn't have received an exemption is just hilarious… and the final passive aggressive line, "well done to him."

  4. I personally think that it makes sense to need to be vaccinated, that’s the safest option for all of us… and just because he’s famous shouldn’t mean he can just go about travelling everywhere unprotected and as an easy target for the virus…

  5. physically stopping the defending champion from the competition – Australian Open is declassified!! to Closed, and victory would be obviously meaningless!!! You would have to win with Honest Novaks -for the victory to qualify as Winning Austrialian Open!!!! Winning Australian Closed is a title for 'closet' bunnies

  6. It blows my mind that after all the data showing that natural immunity is far superior to vaccines governments still don’t recognize it.
    On top of omicron showing that being vax or not made little to no difference on the infection rate.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

one × 3 =