NOVAK DJOKOVIC missed out on the first Grand Slam of 2022 after being deported from Australia, and his place at future major tournaments is by no means guaranteed due to his vaccination status.
Novak Djokovic: Adam Hills shares opinion on tennis star
A leading tennis pundit has reminded fans that Novak Djokovic’s future remains uncertain after he was denied a chance to play in the first Grand Slam of the year. The Serbian missed out on the Australian Open after being deported, and the competition was eventually won by rival Rafael Nadal.
The Djokovic saga dominated the headlines in the build-up to the tournament, after he was held by officials upon his arrival at Melbourne Airport.
He had travelled Down Under after declaring on social media that he had been granted a medical exemption from the travel rule which requires all arriving travellers to be double-jabbed.
His visa was cancelled by the Border Force, and it later emerged that his application form had been filled in incorrectly.
It also became public that the unvaccinated tennis star had appeared for an interview with French media and met with children in the days after he had tested positive for Covid-19.
Djokovic’s lawyers saved him from immediate deportation by appealing, beginning a lengthy process which caused furore for more than week.
Eventually, after two court hearings and plenty of bad blood on both sides, the government’s deportation order was upheld and the world number one was on a plane back to Serbia.
With Djokovic not there and Roger Federer also absent through injury, it gave Nadal the chance to pull ahead of both in terms of Grand Slam titles.
It was an opportunity the Spaniard duly took, coming back to beat Daniil Medvedev in a memorable Melbourne final.
Now that the dust has settled, tennis pundit Andrew Castle has spoken about the situation and warned that Djokovic’s troubles may yet be far from over.
“The only camera we were missing down in Australia was one on Novak’s face on match point when Nadal made it to No.21,” he told Tennis365.