The chances of Novak Djokovic playing at this year's Australian Open appear to be against the reigning champion, according to a Melbourne expert on sports law.
Djokovic is currently is being detained at the Park Hotel, a state-run quarantine facility in Melbourne, and is awaiting the outcome of an appeal against the decision by the Australian Border Force (ABF) to cancel his entry visa.
The world number one must now wait until Monday for the adjourned appeal to take place and it appears that Djokovic’s fate will now be decided solely on legal grounds.
It is understood that the Serbian player obtained a visa to travel to Australia in November, however Australian Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said "a visa was granted for entry, but that does not guarantee entry".
The Australian authorities have not seen sufficient evidence that the non-vaccinated Djokovic has met the entry requirements which "includes medical evidence of vaccination or alternatively medical reasons why that individual cannot be vaccinated".
Speaking on Morning Ireland, Professor Jack Anderson, who is the Director of Sports Law at Melbourne School of Law and is also member of the International Tennis Federation’s ethic commission, said that the odds of Djokovic competing now appear to be stacked against the champion.
"The confusing thing is is that he did apply for a medical exemption and was granted the medical exemption by Tennis Australia and that was validated from a health perspective by the local state government here in Victoria," said Professor Anderson, who previously lectured at Queen's and University of Limerick..
"The interesting thing is that this was done in November and the federal government, which is in charge of immigration told Tennis Australia that the medical exemption would not be enough and the player in question would have to be vaccinated.
"Despite that, it appears Mr Djokovic obtained a visa, boarded a flight from Dubai with no problems, but when he arrived in Melbourne was refused entry.
"So we’re at the stage now where there is a lot of confusion about the status of the visa, why it was refused and why was it granted in the first place, and why Tennis Australia thought the medical exemption was sufficient."
The matter will now be resolved in the courts ahead of the tournament, which is scheduled to start on 17 January, and based on his knowledge of Australian migration law, Professor Anderson is predicting that it will begin without Djokovic in the field.
"In an overall context, you have to remember in 2021 that Melbourne was the most locked-down city in the world at one stage and the view from the government was that if people got vaccinated then we could begin to relax the lockdown," said Anderson.
"And 95% of the population got vaccinated, so in a general population sense there is very little sympathy for Novak Djokovic.
"But having said that, it is equally the case that there is confusion as to why it was until the night that he arrived that a decision was made not to allow him enter.
"The issue really is now how legally this will be resolved in terms of migration law, and generally in Australia you would have to say that the odds are against Mr Djokovic and the odds are against him defending his title at the Australian Open."
