MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) 鈥� Novak Djokovic鈥檚 effort to play in the Australian Open despite being unvaccinated for COVID-19 moved to a higher court Saturday as the No. 1-ranked tennis player appealed the second cancellation of his visa.
Djokovic was not seen on the online feed available to the public for the 15-minute procedural hearing, which began just two days before he is scheduled to play his first match of 2022 at Melbourne Park.
Judge David O'Callaghan ruled that lawyers representing Djokovic and the government would need to submit written arguments later Saturday, and he scheduled another hearing for Sunday morning.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke , which was originally revoked when he landed at a Melbourne airport last week. But it was restored Monday by a judge on procedural grounds because Djokovic was not allowed to have a lawyer with him at the airport.
Deportation from Australia can lead to a three-year ban on returning to the country, although that may be waived, depending on the circumstances.
Djokovic has acknowledged that his travel declaration was incorrect because it failed to indicate that he had been in multiple countries over the two weeks before his arrival in Australia.
He has a record nine Australian Open titles, including the past three in a row, part of his overall Grand Slam haul of 20 championships. He is tied with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer for the most by a man in history.
In a post on social media Wednesday that constituted his most extensive public comments yet the episode, Djokovic blamed his agent for checking the wrong box on the form, calling it 鈥渁 human error and certainly not deliberate.鈥�
In that same post, Djokovic said he went ahead with an interview and a photo shoot with a French newspaper in Serbia despite knowing he had tested positive for COVID-19 two days earlier. Djokovic has been attempting to use what he says was a positive test taken on Dec. 16 to justify a medical exemption that would allow him to skirt the vaccine requirement on the grounds that he already had COVID-19.
Hawke said he canceled the visa on 鈥渉ealth and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so.鈥� His statement added that Prime Minister Scott Morrison鈥檚 government 鈥渋s firmly committed to protecting Australia鈥檚 borders, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.鈥�
The main idea of the appeal of Hawke鈥檚 decision, according to the athlete鈥檚 lawyers, was that it was not based on the health risk that Djokovic might pose by not being vaccinated, but on how he might be perceived by anti-vaxxers.
Morrison himself welcomed Djokovic鈥檚 pending deportation. The episode has , and particularly in Victoria state, where locals went through hundreds of days of lockdowns during the worst of the pandemic and there is a vaccination rate among adults of more than 90%.
Australia faces a massive surge in virus cases driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant. On Friday, the nation reported 130,000 new cases, including nearly 35,000 in Victoria state. Although many infected people aren鈥檛 getting as sick as they did in previous outbreaks, the surge is still putting severe strain on the health system, with more than 4,400 people hospitalized. It has also disrupted workplaces and supply chains.
鈥淭his pandemic has been incredibly difficult for every Australian, but we have stuck together and saved lives and livelihoods. ... Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic, and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected,鈥� Morrison said. 鈥淭his is what the Minister is doing in taking this action today.鈥�
His supporters in Serbia have been .
Everyone at the Australian Open 鈥� including players, their support teams and spectators 鈥� is required to be vaccinated. Djokovic is not inoculated.
His exemption was approved by the Victoria state government and Tennis Australia, apparently allowing him to obtain a visa to travel. But the Australian Border Force rejected the exemption and canceled his visa when he landed in the country on Jan. 5.
Djokovic spent four nights in an immigration detention hotel before a judge overturned that decision. That ruling allowed him to move freely around Australia and he has been practicing at Melbourne Park daily.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a good situation for anyone,鈥� said Andy Murray, a three-time Grand Slam champion and five-time runner-up at the Australian Open. "It just seems like it鈥檚 dragged on for quite a long time now.鈥�
According to Grand Slam rules, if Djokovic is forced to pull out of the tournament before the order of play for Day 1 is announced, No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev would move into Djokovic鈥檚 spot in the bracket.
If Djokovic withdraws from the tournament after Monday鈥檚 schedule is released, he would be replaced in the field by what鈥檚 known as a 鈥渓ucky loser鈥� 鈥� a player who loses in the qualifying tournament but gets into the main draw because of another player鈥檚 exit before competition has started.
And if Djokovic plays in a match 鈥� or more 鈥� and then is told he can no longer participate in the tournament, his next opponent would simply advance to the following round and there would be no replacement.
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John Pye And Rod Mcguirk , The Associated Press
