How the Djokovic visa debacle is being viewed internationally
The international spotlight is on Australia, with the world’s top male tennis player in a quarantine hotel in Carlton awaiting a legal challenge to his visa cancellation.
Novak Djokovic’s visa to enter Australia was cancelled on Thursday, after he was held at Melbourne Airport for nine hours after arriving for the Australian Open.
He will stay in Melbourne until at least Monday after launching a last-minute bid in the Federal Circuit Court to stop his deportation.
Contributor to The Guardian, ESPN, New York Times and TennisMajors.com, Simon Cambers, says the story is dominating the news around the world.
“It’s a huge, huge spotlight on Australia,” he told Emily Power and Jimmy Bartel, filling in for Ross and Russel.
“The facts of the story are still actually not completely clear which is part of the difficulty.
“We’re lacking a bit of transparency but certainly something has gone wrong somewhere.”
But Mr Cambers says the heat isn’t just on Australia, it’s also on Djokovic.
“Obviously he could have just solved all of this by getting vaccinated in the first place, which would have been a lot easier,” he said.
“But given the way Djokovic has been pretty anti-science over the past couple of years, and some of the things he’s said about the vaccine, he has a lot of people who are very quick to judge what he does.
“He has created quite a lot of these situations and this one is the worst of all, in terms of probably missing the Australian Open where he’s won nine times.”
Press PLAY below to hear more about how the saga is being perceived internationally
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