We all had a feeling it was coming, and here it is. Novak Djokovic’s Australian visa was cancelled yet again. Australian border control tried to cancel his visa last week – they detained him at the airport upon his entry into the country, and he was shuffled off to a detainment/quarantine hotel for several days before a court hearing. At the hearing last week, the judge reinstated Djokovic’s visa, basically saying that Australian authorities had not given Novak a chance to get his paperwork in order and that border control was too quick on the draw. Still, Australian authorities had already opened up an investigation into Novak’s claims of getting Covid in December and the inconsistencies, isolation-breaking and general contempt of public health regulations was enough to re-revoke Novak’s visa:
Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, had his visa revoked for a second time by the Australian authorities on Friday, the latest dizzying volley in a drawn-out drama over his refusal to be vaccinated for Covid-19.
Australia’s immigration minister, Alex Hawke, said in a statement that he was canceling Djokovic’s visa on the grounds of “health and good order,” adding that it was in the public interest to do so. Hawke took the action four days after Djokovic won a legal victory that freed him from immigration detention, where he had been held since arriving at a Melbourne airport last week.
The minister offered no further details about his decision to revoke the visa, other than to say that the Australian government was committed to protecting the country’s borders during the pandemic.
Djokovic’s lawyers said on Friday night that they would immediately file an appeal, as well as an injunction that would allow him to remain in the country, with the start of the Australian Open three days away. Legal experts said he might have little chance of having the decision overturned, after winning his first round in court on narrow procedural grounds.
A federal investigation led by Hawke had revealed that Djokovic provided false information on the documents he gave to border officials when he tried to enter the country last week.
Those documents failed to state that Djokovic, who lives in Monte Carlo, had traveled between Serbia and Spain during the 14 days ahead of his arrival in Australia.
Last week, I felt like Novak, Tennis Australia and the Australian government would work out some kind of deal. But then Novak’s lies and falsified records started piling up, and even the Serbian prime minister wouldn’t vouch for him. People have known/felt that Novak will be deported for days now, so I wonder… why late on Friday (in Oz)? Why after the Australian Open draw was made? Incidentally, I don’t even think “Djokovic getting deported” would mess up the draw that much. If Novak gets deported, it will probably be Alexander Zverev (a credibly accused domestic abuser) or Rafael Nadal coming out of that half of the draw.
Currently, Novak and his lawyers are appealing the visa decision and there was a hearing late Friday. It’s confusing, but it seems that the judge wants Djokovic’s lawyers to get their appeal paperwork in order, and that there will be a series of hearings and court appearances this weekend.
Part of the government’s case is that Novak needs to be deported because he’s a well-publicized anti-vaxxer, who is spreading an anti-vaxx message around Australia. Basically, the judge told the government that they can’t deport Novak yet, there is more to be done legally. Novak is truly going to have to schedule court appearances around his matches.
Update: Okay, Novak will be back in some kind of detainment facility through Saturday and he has to sit for another border security interview. We should know – maybe – on Sunday whether he will be deported. And Novak’s first round match is scheduled for Monday.
Statement from PM Scott Morrison on Djokovic visa decision pic.twitter.com/FwOrFJm4wI
— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownAU) January 14, 2022
Andy Murray spoke about Novak Djokovic after his win over Reilly Opelka today. The news broke during his match.
"I'm not going to sit here and start kicking Novak whilst he's down. I mean, I said it the other day, it's not a good situation for anyone." pic.twitter.com/fXUhehwNoS
— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) January 14, 2022
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
By the time this is all done, the Australian Open will be over.
LOL exactly. Big tears for the white dude who wants to endanger everyone else because he is SO SPECIAL, IMPORTANT, and RICH. Props to Australian border control for kicking him out, LOL. So over him and anyone else not thinking about the community and only thinking of themselves.
Poor little NoVAX DjoCOVID. Had he played the crowds would have been hostile & he would have melted down. Go home & get the Vaccine
Remember, this is a guy who hosted a tournament in the middle of Covid in 2020 where a bunch of tennis players went out partying too. He’s been incredibly dumb about Covid for 2 yrs now.
Who exactly would this white dude endanger?
Lkv: Covid-19 Vaccines reduce the risk of people spreading the virus. The eligible but unvaccinated population knowingly endanger others by choosing not to get vaccinated. They are part of the problem. We don’t have measles or leprosy, for example, because of the miracle of vaccines.
An interesting thing is that apparently if you get kicked out under “you’re a bad person, we don’t want you in Australia” clause, your visa gets revoked for THREE YEARS. You *might* be an exemption to be let back in for compassionate grounds, or if allowing you in is in the best interests of Australia, but probably not.
I’m certain all legal hoops would have been jumped through for either of the William’s sisters. I’m absolutely so sure the process would have been exactly the same for them.
I am At my max capacity for men failing up. Men are wildly overestimating their current market value and I’ve fucking had it.
“Men are wildly overestimating their current market value.”
👏👏👏 Love it. Stealing it. Sharing it.
We need someone to print it on t-shirts and embroider it on cushions.
Same!
omg. same. I love it!!
* QOTW*!
Remember the French open banned Serena from wearing the catsuit? And they said Naomi had to do the press? Well, of course yesterday they said the Novak can play in France unvaccinated. 🙄
So of course the Williams sisters would have been treated exactly the same. /s
“Men are wildly overestimating their current market value and I’ve fucking had it.”
Say it.
Ummmm…..“Men are wildly overestimating their current market value and I’ve fucking had it.” That sentence is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
@ CROWHOODreturns, while I love your comment regarding men, I must disagree with regards to the Williams sisters. Both sisters would have been treated differently, as we have seen countless times. They are already treated more harshly than the male players whereas this jerk-off is certainly thinking that he is the greatest of ALL time and that his lies are to be ignored.
No-Vaxx Djokod!ck is utterly the most useless human being. He can play tennis but his behaviour negates that. He should have been deported without all of these legal challenges.
Also, I had read about this as it came out in the very early morning here in the US, as I had been awake. It certainly made my day!!
BothSidesNow, the stuff CROWHOODreturns said about the Williams sisters being treated the same was sarcastic. 😉
(You can see it in the redundant and slightly over-the-top phrasing [“absolutely so sure”] and because sarcasm fits much better with the line about being sick of men being allowed to fail up.)
What an a-hole! Spending all this f@cking money on lawyers but the vaccine is free. 🙄🙄 People like him are why we are never getting out of this pandemic. He gives legitimacy to these anti vaxxers. I’m sure he doesn’t have a problem getting other vaccines for other countries who mandate it.
Actually, so far only Australia’s taxpayers spent all that money on his lawyers, possibly the same will happen again.
And the vaccine is not free.
Oh really? How much did you have to pay when you got vaccinated then?
My taxes and your taxes and rising health insurance, that pays for the ‘free’ vaccines. Nothing in life is free.
@willow – My taxes and your taxes pay for a lot of things. While not technically free, I’m as good as can be my tax money is used for public health. You should be too.
If you are paying for it indirectly either way, then the point stands: it does not cost you anything more to get the vaccine than to not get the vaccine. Argue in good faith, please.
I still see him getting out of this as a winner (in every sense) because if it were anyone else, HE WOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEPORTED.
Seriously, the guy is like Teflon at this point…
exactly. If he was anyone else, this wouldn’t have been an issue, he’d be on the first flight back
Another female tennis player has already been deported (two perhaps?) I think it was because she tried to use the same exemption, that she’d had Covid in the six months before they arrived. Novak got a break because he appealed and won the appeal on procedural grounds.
Isn’t this the same dude who called out Naomi Osaka for not following the rules? He’s a scum bag
I wonder what’s different about these two? I just can’t put my finger on it/s
Osaka actually thanked him for supporting her last spring/summer. Djokovic is problematic enough on his own without people accusing him of shit he didn’t do.
no, but he did say some words about Simone Biles backing out of olympic competition (for her own self care) and then proceeded to back out of his olympic matches for his own self care (sore elbow). speculation was that he could have played but knew he wouldn’t win so he quit.
So can everyone lie on their paperwork and not be instantly deported or is it just white male tennis players?
They kicked out the Czech player didn’t they? She was in the same hotel at Novak.
She just decided not to fight her deportation.
She didn’t fight because she doesn’t have the same resources. He’s been earning milions for years, so he has no issues with hiring top lawyers to try to stop deportation
I used to do volunteer work with detained asylum seekers in Australia. I lived near two detention centres and I’d help lawyers research asylum claims. The appeals process for immigration matters in Australia can be very, very long. I knew one guy who spent 5 years in detention and the majority of the 5 years was spent on 2 appeals to the Federal court. He eventually won both appeals and is now an Australian citizen. It was discraceful that it took that long – but it’s just an example to say that Novak isn’t getting special treatment by being allowed these appeals.
He is a special case though because he didn’t have to wait 5 years in detention on his appeals, did he? You think any average Joe would get an immediately scheduled hearing, over the weekend too? No.
The fact he even got on that plane knowing full well he doesn’t meet the immigration criteria but having assurances from a private organization in Australia says it all. He didn’t get an exemption from the federal government to enter Australia and he still came, cocky and assured it would work. And his visa has been revoked TWICE yet he’s still there! Literally no one else, bar Bezos or Musk or those people, would be so lucky.
The entitlement of this a hole is off the charts. The rules are the rules. He shouldnt be allowed to skirt around rules because he hits a tennis ball, is a white male or a millionaire.
Deport him, Australia….
Can I just say – BWAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAAHAHA
How can he play the Open if his visa is canceled? Appeals are just that, appeals.
If the Open allows him on the court, because this is work, that is a whole different cluster.
They’re hoping the matter will be settled Monday morning and he can play his first round Monday night. But Novax gets turned over to the detention facility on Saturday, has his Federal court hearing on Sunday and more on Monday, I believe. None of this seems to permit him time to practice. But because he’s such a deity, according to him and his family, he should be able to overcome all this “adversity” and prevail. He walks on needles. Can turn vaccines into whine.
Can turn vaccines into whine lolololol
ThatsNotOkay, you owe me a keyboard
Doesn’t he have to stay in the quarantine hotel while the appeal is pending? That can’t give him time to practice before his hearing.
He is already appealing again lol while he is appealing through the courts he gets what is called a Bridging visa it’s something that allows people to stay legally in the country while the legal process is sorted the thing is no one is certain if he has work rights with this visa or how he can join the AO if he has no working rights given his job is to play tennis so in nutshell, it’s a complicated process the Aussies could’ve saved themselves the embarrassment and not approved his visa in the first place.
I was hoping for a bit of schadenfreude by seeing the Melbourne crowds boo him at the Open. But then I realized the crowds may not be at full capacity due to Covid running rampant though Aus at the mo…not sure if that’s irony or just bloody depressing.
Crowds will be limited to 50% capacity
If he’s allowed to play, I hope he has good security. I mean, I personally couldn’t give a fuck what happens to him, but for his own sake, yeah, security. Talking to my Aussie friends, people are PISSED.
They should be!!! I am pissed for them!!! They were under some of the most strict coronavirus lockdowns and their own citizens weren’t allowed to come home, so why allow this entitled pr!ck as an exception?
I am sure every Jane and John Doe would receive the same leniency when trying to prove they shouldn’t be deported from Australia.
go home, Noxav! no one wants your cooties!
I am so over this dude and his bullshit.
Novak – NO means NO, not maybe. Australia has spoken – you are not wanted – go home
Jferber had a wonderfully prescient comment yesterday: the government would wait as long as possible so as to make it harder for Djokovic to fight. This late filing on Friday evening seems to back that up.
In the interest of fairness, I hope he winds up deported before the AO. Australians were stranded in Europe, unable to fly home, lots of Australians were in lockdown for MONTHS, the were issues with vaccines, there are issues with a scarcity of tests… I read that he might be able to play on a temporary visa while his case is argued, and I sincerely hope that is not true!!
Why did this break late on Friday? Because Morrison’s trying to use it for political advantage, or course. Djokovic is a dead cat being thrown out to bounce all over the weekend news and distract attention from the federal government’s dire failure to prepare for the Omicron wave and procure the RATs necessary to manage ‘living with COVID’ and maintaining a functioning workforce and economy. There’s an election coming up. Morrison’s alleged marketing skills aren’t working any more, He can’t run the traditional “The Liberal Party are intrinsically better economic managers” campaign when the economy in the eastern states is doing worse than it was during lockdowns, and he can’t wedge Labor on previously divisive issues such as climate change, LGBT acceptance and women’s rights because the public mood has changed and they’re no longer divisive. All he has left is his ‘tough on borders’ boasting, hence, Djokovic.
So many are cheering without knowing the full picture that immigration guy Alex hawk has the power to deport anyone from the country even after the courts decided in their favor imagine how the refugees & asylum seekers have suffered because of this system
Calm down! Stop bagging our country. Covid has been front page news every day. Border Control cancelled Joker’s visa bc he didn’t have the evidence of a medical exemption. The Fed Court only reinstated his visa due to a technicality that he should have been given more time to prepare his case. Of Course the Immigration Minister will take a few days to prepare his decision to revoke his visa again, knowing that the clown will appeal. It is vital the Minister has 100% fullproof evidence. Can’t do tat overnight.
And every Immigration Minister has had the right to deport any non-citizen , not just the current Government. As long as the Minister still follows the rule of law. Please stop having a go at our Government. Would you rather this anti-vaxxer stay???
I see no lies in what Tamsin has said, the government is an embarrassment and should be called out for its inept response to this issue and to its complete mismanagement of the current wave of the pandemic – omicron everywhere, no food in supermarkets, no tests, hospitals overwhelmed. To be clear I can’t stand Djoker and happy to see him deported, but the shambolic way the situation has been handled is a good reflection of how everything else in this country has been handled by the Morrison government.
Meanwhile Renata Voracova was not only kicked out, but also humiliated by the border control who forced her to undress during questioning, plus she wasn’t told at any point she had the right to appeal the decision to revoke her visa. And she actually had a good reason to seek an exemption.
This is infuriating. I hope they send him packing, I hope there’s an investigation into him back home, I hope he remains a disgrace forever and is forced to slither back into whatever backwater hole he and his idiotic views crawled out of.
A person with some modicum of dignity, being so obviously in the wrong and clearly unwanted, would have already taken themselves out of the country, but I guess that’s not Novak!
So, why does he have a right to an appeal on Sunday when all other people have to wait for the courts to open? Voracova didn’t have any appeal… The fact that the court is opening on Sunday for this tw*t just shows how the world is so bias…
Why late Friday afternoon?
1) It’s a favourite tactic of this government, to drop a controversial announcement late Friday afternoon and hope it gets buried over the weekend (ha ha ha fat chance) and
2) If rumours are to be believed, it took them that long to run the focus groups and survey social media reactions. Our idiot prime minister is known as Scotty from Marketing for a reason…
It’s actually a very popular decision. Please stop talking down my country! Would you rather have an anti-vaxxer play in your tennis tournament?
Janice, are you also Emily from upthread? Because you sound just like Emily.
And people can criticize a government leader without insulting the country. That really is what’s happening here.
ML, thanks for the shout-out. He still might play. They’ll run concurrent courts 24/7 for him if necessary, weekends, holidays, whatever.
He should just take the L and go home. Give up his appeals and salvage his reputation. He has nothing to gain by playing. Any wins he gets if he makes it to the court will be tainted. Hell have the dreaded asterisk by his record if he wins the tournament. The no-vax nickname is here to stay. If heaven forbid an official or ball kid gets sick, he’d have that blamed on him as well. Go home, No-vaxx. You’ve messed this whole thing up. He’s a rich white dude and his transgression will be forgiven and forgotten, especially if he says sorry like a good little boy and sheds some tears. So why waste all the money and time?
Cost of appeal to hit a damn ball: hundreds of thousands
Cost of a vaccine: zero dollars
Cost to his reputation and branding opportunities outside of Serbia? Potentially millions.
He may be really rich, but he’s a stupid guy who thinks he’s smart. Who’s to say that he hasn’t done something dumb like investing a huge amount of money in one of those “Mary Kay for bros” crypto Ponzi schemes? He wouldn’t be the 1st athlete worth 9 figures who ends up flat broke.
Didn’t he and his father/family invest big bucks into some Covid “medicine/cure”, hence the anti-vaxx stance? Could swear I’ve read that in several places.
Not really sure about this 1. he has the legal right to appeal 2. last time he was in court he won & the government agreed ( using cough cough taxpayers money ) to pay his legal cost
People it is money. If the Australian tennis organisation wasn’t so greedy in the first place, Djokovic would still be sitting in Serbia or Spain or wherever. He brings viewership in countries like China and India where he is very much loved. So that’s why he was allowed to enter the country.
However
At this point I don’t understand him. Why doesn’t he just leave? What is to be gained at this point. It is going to be a hell on the court.
Boy oh boy, I can just imagine the tantrum this man-baby is throwing. Related somewhat, a fellow nurse, friend of mine always used to say when she worked with infants in the nursery she would whisper “the secret of life” to all girl babies. Which is this; “ALL MEN ARE A**H*LES”! I tend to agree but would say ‘most’ instead of all.
I am sick right now from covid (double vaxxed, booster taken but already exposed to covid). On my back for the last three days with headaches, chills, cough, sore throat & runny nose. The thought of someone testing positive and then hanging around children is criminal. Not only should Novaxx be sent home, he should be charged for infecting people at large. This is gross. Send him home.
Feel better soon!
Hope you start to feel better soon!
I just got over the same. It’s miserable. Took OTC sinus congestion medicine to get rid of the pounding headache. Lasted about 5 days. Husband got it after me. Now I’m just exhausted. If this is what omicron is like even with 2 vaxxs and a booster, holy sh*t, covid must be horrible without it. Hope you feel better soon.
Australia is giving big “fuck around and find out” energy, and I’m here for it!
yes!!! great to be part of it as a proud Aussie
Good, l hope your country gives him the send-off he deserves!
He needs to accept it and go home.
And shut up his ridiculous family and their clown show.
Shocked to see Murray being so neutral about it. He’s usually on the proper side of social issues. Mr. Diplomacy Rafa Nadal even put his two cents in. Is it really kicking someone when their down if the person is being a complete POS…?!
There have been so many “bad boys” of tennis, but is this the first time the lives of people have been endangered? For that alone, he should go home. Obviously, because he carried on with a tennis tournament at the beginning of Covid, he thinks he does not need to consider the lives of other human beings? He just lacks human decency.
Ally, Murray said something salty at the beginning that was great, but I think he’s getting tired of Jokavitch sucking up all the air in the room and he got testy. Understandable.
Australian here – the main story which is not apparent to non-australians:
Aus Open is auspiced by our state level of govt
State govt let him in
Border control is under Federal control – so Feds tried to oust him
Covid has been continually politicised by these two levels of govt and this is just a continuation of that.
Not Australian here. I just believe that if he lied and didn’t follow the rules everybody has / had to follow (including the rest of the players – I’m sure some of them didn’t want to take the vaccine but followed the rules and took it) he should be kicked out. He’s not above anyone else..
Novak is making the whole game of tennis look bad. Isn’t he supposed to be an ambassador for his sport? I can’t remember when tennis has looked more classless and boorish than now. Good job, Novak. But then again, it’s all about you anyway, isn’t it?
He certainly is sucking all the air out of the room. right?