4
0
With the first grand slam of the tennis season starting next week in the form of the Australian open, there has already been big controversy surrounding the favourite and number 1 tennis player in the world Novak Djokovic. We at the Clyde insider have created a timeline of the events surrounding the saga.
Tuesday 4th January
Australian covid rules state all arrivals into the country must be vaccinated, Djokovic is currently unvaccinated however had been given a medical exemption to arrive in Australia and play at the tournament as he announced this on a post on Instagram and believed everything was all good for him too travel.
Wednesday 5th January
On arrival Djokovic had his visa revoked due to requesting a visa that does not state that he’d been given a medical exemption, the Australian border force only discovered this when the 20 grand slam winner was on a flight to Melbourne. Djokovic arrived at around 11:30pm
Thursday 6th January
At 3:15am, Djokovic’s father confirmed, Novak was being held in isolation at Melbourne Airport after reports had broken out. After almost nine hours from arriving at around 8:15am it was official that Novak Djokovic’s visa had been denied by the Australian border force, the Serbian was then moved to the quarantine hotel, of course deciding to appeal, the case is adjourned to Monday the 10th of January.
Saturday 8th January
Djokovic’s lawyers confirm the number 1 ranked player in the world had tested positive for Covid 19 in December, this would give Novak Djokovic immunity to covid and therefore passing his medical exemption of not being vaccinated.
Monday 10th January
It is announced that Djokovic wins his appeal with judge Anthony Kelly ordering the Australian government to pay legal fees and immediately release Djokovic from detention.
The ATP slams the government by claiming the whole situation was ‘damaging on all fronts’. Novak’s father branded the Australian prime minister a dictator after Novak’s victory in the appeal as he said:
“Autocracy has shown its true face today. Contrary to the decision of the Independent Court of Australia, dictator Scott ordered the arrest of my son, Your World Champion, Novak Djokovic”
Tuesday 11th January
However another twist in the saga has happened as reports now suggesting Djokovic’s declaration is getting investigated after he answered ‘no’ to the question ‘ have you travelled or will you travel in the 14 days prior to your flight to Australia despite being pictured training in Spain 5 days before arriving down under.
This then brings us up to date with what has been happening in this week of madness in the tennis season.
Seeing this drama we took to social media to see what reactions people had to Novak Djokovic’s situation and this is some of the reactions we received
One person said:
“ Think it’s shocking, just because of who he is shouldn’t mean he should be treated differently from others”
Another person agreed with this point as they said:
“If he has a sufficient reason to not be allowed the vaccine then he should be allowed to play however he has not expressed a reason sufficient I feel he shouldn’t be allowed to play and get special treatment when others won’t get that treatment”
These two similar reactions are very different to Novak’s fathers thoughts on Monday after the 20 grand slam winner won his appeal.
The Australian open starts on the 17th of January with Djokovic aiming to win his 21st grand slam, making himself the most successful men’s tennis player of all time.
