Novak Djokovic’s bid to defend his Australian Open title might have come to an untimely end, with border officials Down Under denying him entry and packing him off to a detention facility for deportation to his home country, Serbia, for his failure to fulfil covid vaccination requirements. Australia’s entry rules require a double dose or medical exemption granted by two independent panels for such reasons as having had covid in the past six months. The tennis champ, it seems, could show proof of neither.
The matter has escalated to a diplomatic level. Outrage has been aired by Djokovic’s fans as well as the Serbian government. As the sportsman is considered a vaccine sceptic, a reputation he owes his own statements, many Australian citizens have demanded that he not be given special treatment at a time everyone was taking jabs to help contain covid. The finer details of his case are not fully known, but if Djokovic’s shot at another title is within the rules and he does have a valid exemption, he should be let in. However, if he expects a fault call to go by his own version of ‘in’ or ‘out’, then that’s simply not on—neither on the tennis court nor in the court of rational public opinion.
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