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Game over for Djokovic
Vaccination against COVID-19 is voluntary in Australia, but Victoria State, where the Australian Open is being held, has made it mandatory for all professional athletes.
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People hold placards up at a government detention centre where Serbia's tennis champion Novak Djokovic is reported to be staying in Melbourne on Jan. 7 after Australia said it had cancelled the entry visa of Djokovic. (AFP/William West)
I
magine what the FIFA World Cup would look like this summer without five-time champion Brazil or four-time winner Germany. To a certain degree, a similar situation is plaguing the Australian Open, the first of four tennis grand slam tournaments of the year, after world number one Novak Djokovic was denied entry to the country.
It's game over for Djokovic and his mission to defend his Australian Open trophy and set a new record of 21 grand slam titles — even before he had the chance to hit the ball. The tournament kicked off on Monday, the same day the Serbian left Melbourne for Dubai.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke exercised his power on Friday and revoked Djokovic’s visa after the court ruled in favor of him when he challenged the first entry ban. The Australian Border Force had canceled Djokovic’s visa upon his arrival on Jan. 6, saying he "failed to provide appropriate evidence" to receive a vaccine exemption.
As a consequence of the deportation, Djokovic may not be able to enter Australia for three years, which means he could miss the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Australian Open. However, that may be waived depending on the circumstances.
In denying Djokovic’s visa, Hawke insisted that allowing the tennis star to stay in Australia could trigger anti-vaccination sentiments, therefore putting the country’s public health and good order at risk. Australia, like many other countries, has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and will keep struggling to contain the virus now that the more transmissible Omicron variant has spread.
It seems the Scott Morrison government has no choice but to ban Djokovic given its aggressive vaccine rollout. As of Saturday, over 81 percent of the Australian population has received the first jab, almost 72 percent has been fully vaccinated and 19 percent has had a booster.
Vaccination against COVID-19 is voluntary in Australia, but Victoria State, where the Australian Open is being held, has made it mandatory for all professional athletes. Djokovic is known for his opposition to vaccination and headed to Melbourne after recovering from his second COVID-19 infection.
The way Australia expelled Djokovic has sparked controversy worldwide, even among tennis players, with Australian ace Nick Kyrgios describing the way his government had treated the Serbian like “a weapon of mass destruction". It remains to be seen whether the French, British and the United States governments will follow in Australia’s footsteps of denying entry to unvaccinated players when the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open are to be held later this year.
Like the International Olympics Committee, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has not declared vaccination against COVID-19 compulsory. But the association’s data shows that more than 95 percent of the top 100 male tennis players and 80 percent of male players overall have been double-jabbed. As one tennis player said, he followed calls for vaccination simply to protect himself, rather than to avoid a visa problem on his globe-wide tour.
In response to the Djokovic saga, ATP expressed its regret over the series of events, saying the world number one’s absence from the Australian Open “is a loss for the game”.
But for Australia, and perhaps Indonesia, the responsibility to protect the nation against the pandemic is a game it has to win at any cost.
