Murray upset by Djokovic saga as visa hearing looms
THE Australian government has failed in a bid to delay Novak Djokovic’s visa hearing until after the Australian Open draw is finalised.
Judge Anthony Kelly rejected, in an order published yesterday, the submission by home affairs minister Karen Andrews on Saturday to push today’s hearing to Wednesday.
But the judge left the government with the option of making another application to delay today.
World No.1 Djokovic has been detained at an immigration facility in Melbourne since Thursday morning after his visa was cancelled following scrutiny of the medical exemption he had secured to travel to the first tennis major of the year.
Former British No.1 Andy Murray has expressed concern for the Serbian and says his predicament is “really not good for tennis at all”.
“I think everyone is shocked by it, to be honest,” five-time
Australian Open finalist Murray told reporters in Australia.
“I’m going to say two things on it just now. The first thing is that I hope that Novak is okay. I know him well, and I’ve always had a good relationship with him and I hope that he’s okay.
“The second thing, it’s really not good for tennis at all, and I don’t think it’s good for anyone involved. I think it’s really bad.”
The Federal Circuit Court heard on Thursday that
Tennis Australia had said it would need to know by tomorrow for scheduling purposes if defending champion Djokovic could compete.
Judge Kelly at the time, however, insisted the court would not be rushed, adding: “The tail won’t be wagging the dog here.”
Djokovic’s lawyers have claimed he was granted a vaccine exemption to enter Australia because he contracted Covid-19 last month.
In court documents published on Saturday, it was stated Djokovic recorded a positive test on December 16, and has “not had a fever or respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 in the last 72 hours”.
Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley has blamed “constant conflict” in advice from state and federal government for causing the debacle.
Tiley, who is also the tournament director, says the federal government rejected two requests in November to examine exemption cases for unvaccinated players before they arrived in the country.
“We asked if they could please assess our decisions,” he told reporters in Australia. “They declined.
“We said we’re going to need some help to make sure we’re doing the right thing. We’d be in a different situation today.
“We were caught in this constant conflict between state and federal [advice] and this pandemic has highlighted that complexity.”