The imbroglio around the participation of Novak Djokovic at the next Australian Open continues to cause a stir and very clever the one who could say today if the 34-year-old tennis player will be present in the first round of the Grand Slam tournament. Arrived last Tuesday in Melbourne with a medical exemption , the Serb, who refuses to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, was refused access to the territory by Australian customs because of a non-compliant visa, causing a real outcry with fans and relatives of the world number 1 . After several days of detention in a hotel, he was finally released by the judge in charge of his case and he can now travel legally on Australian territory.
If everything seems more or less settled for Novak Djokovic, it could be that he is not quite out of the woods. His case has drawn public attention and all his actions over the past few weeks are now being scrutinized. And among the information transmitted when he arrived in Australia, one of them seems to be problematic. To the question “Have you traveled in the past fourteen days?” , present on the arrival form, it says “No” , according to information shared by journalist Karen Sweeney on Twitter.
The problem ? Novak Djokovic has indeed traveled in the last two weeks since he was in Spain, in Marbella, a few days before his departure. Training at the Soto Tennis Academy, he stayed there until January 4, according to the Australian press. A major problem since it is specified on the form that “giving false or misleading information is a serious offense. You may expose yourself to a civil sanction” . According to the information of L’Équipe , on his arrival on the spot, the Serbian had indicated that Tennis Australia had taken care of filling out this form, which does not prevent the fact that this error can pose big problems to the player.
And there's fresh questions over Novak Djokovic's Australian Travel Declaration – in which he declared he hadn't travelled in the 14 days before he flew to Australia on Jan 5. He was seen playing Tennis in Serbia on Dec 25, and training in Spain on Jan 2. pic.twitter.com/s4fGZNc280
— Karen Sweeney (@karenlsweeney) January 11, 2022
DETAILS OF HIS INTERROGATION
Questioned by customs officers on his arrival, Novak Djokovic admitted that he was not vaccinated against Covid-19. “I am not vaccinated” , he replied before continuing: “I contracted the Covid twice, I had the Covid in June 2020 and I had it recently – I was tested positive with a PCR test on December 16, 2021. I have the documents that can attest to this ” . The Serb therefore believed legitimately to be able to return to the territory, but obviously things were much more complicated than that and it would seem that we are still far from the outcome in this affair.