The web in which Novak Djokovic has been entangled since he landed at Melbourne airport on Wednesday night will keep him isolated, at least, until next Monday. It will be then when, starting at ten in the morning, the audience starts that should allow us to begin to intuit to what extent their defense of the Australian Open title, which begins seven days later, is viable or not. If he can't enlist, Daniil Medvedev or Alexander Zverev could even snatch number one from him. For the moment, the Serbian player remains locked up in a room at the Park Hotel in the Carlton neighborhood (a hotel for asylum seekers), and there it seems that he will stay despite the request made by the government of the Balkan country,that, through his Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he demanded that he be transferred to another higher-class establishment, where he would not be treated “indecently”. The response to those comments came from Karen Andrews, Australian Home Secretary. “Mr Djokovic is not a captive in Australia. You are free to leave (the country) anytime you decide to do so. The border forces are sure to facilitate it, ”Andrews said.
01:17
Djokovic's father: "They keep our Novak in captivity"
Djokovic's family at a press conference Video: REUTERS
The different actors involved in the mess continue to cover up as best they can, while pointing out each other. If this Thursday the two letters that the Department of Health sent to the Australian Tennis Federation, in November, and that alerted of the possibility of invalidating the requests of those who argued not having been vaccinated due to having contracted the virus in the previous six months, were revealed, This episode of the serial had its second part this Friday. Jacinta Allan, Acting Minister of Victoria and a member of the Labor Party, revealed that this information never reached the Government or the players, and blamed Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, of the Liberal Party. "I have been told that no such correspondence reached the Victorian government officials," Allan said.“The role of the Victorian government, as the host city and state, is to organize a safe event. How the people who participate in it enter the country corresponds to the Commonwealth government, which is the one who issues the visas, "added the executive.
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The process that has kept Djokovic in isolation since Thursday has exposed the seams of the political conjuncture of a country that 11 months ago was growing chest for the management that had been made of the pandemic.
The images that symbolized Morrison's success in sealing the island to keep the virus as far away as possible also had tennis as the protagonist.
While the whole world lived in fear, locked up and counting the deceased by tens of thousands, the Adelaide tournament filled its stands with the public.
None of the spectators captured by the cameras wore a mask.
01:27
Australian interior minister explains why Djokovic is being held
Australian Home Secretary Karen Andrews at a press conference Video: EUROPA PRESS
Not a year after that, the Djokovic case reveals the political gibberish that prevails in Australia, where the six states are practically sovereign, to the point of deciding their restrictions on access from abroad. This means that a traveler who arrives in Brisbane (Queensland) on a transoceanic flight will be obliged to do 14 days of quarantine, while if his plane lands in Sydney, he will be free after taking a rapid antigen test that gives a negative result. Although the accumulated number of deaths (2,301), of active cases counted (330,300) and other parameters cannot be compared with other countries, among other things due to the very low existing population density (25.7 million people), the numbers of this Thursdays were the worst since the pandemic began, especially in new cases detected (72.357).
In the midst of all the controversy over Djokovic's visa, the Australian authorities this Friday also canceled the visa for Czech tennis player Renata Voráčová, who will have to return to her country if the country's immigration authorities do not decide otherwise.
At the moment, it is unknown if the tennis player, who, like the Serbian, awaits a decision next Monday, will appeal the decision.
The curiosity is given that Voráčová was already in the country and had played a preparation match prior to the Australian Open.
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