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Obviously he had to stay to fight for the right to play in the tournament. Australia is the one that comes off with egg on their face, first they gave him a visa then they revoked it over a policy that most sane people would consider ridiculous. He's the defending champion and they won't even let him in to defend his title, that makes a mockery of their so called "championship" title. The "winner" of their tournament will be a joke because he only won after the government locked up the better player. Australia has lost all credibility, their money making tournament has now lost it's prestige, and Djokovic is still the #1 tennis player in the world.

He certainly doesn't need the money, it won't hurt him but Australia is now a laughing stock. In the big scheme of things he has made made them look like fools.

This certainly isn't Australia's finest hour. What a pathetic showing from a country who supposedly was made of better people. They're scared of their shadows, they might as well be French.

Don’t feel too bad about him. He broke rules.

Djokovic was initially given an exemption to the federal requirement that everyone entering Australia be vaccinated against the coronavirus so that he could play in the Australian Open. It was granted based on a positive test he took in Serbia on Dec. 16.

But an investigation revealed irregularities and inaccurate statements on Djokovic’s visa application — which Djokovic later acknowledged and apologized for on Wednesday. The documents failed to state that Djokovic, who lives in Monte Carlo, had traveled between Serbia and Spain during the 14 days ahead of his arrival in Australia. Djokovic attributed the error to human oversight by one of his handlers.

The Australian government also expressed concern that on Dec. 18, a day after Djokovic learned that he had tested positive, he hosted journalists at his tennis center in Belgrade for an interview and photo shoot, without informing them. Those revelations led to the second visa revocation on Friday. Zoran Gojkovic, a member of Serbia’s coronavirus crisis team, said the player’s positive test result was valid. Djokovic is not displaying a whole lot of concern for other people and loses his credibility in being trusted to isolate himself away from the Australian population while in the country with a positive test accurate.

And some current and past players are not in his favor. “The Australian Open is much more important than any player,” Rafael Nadal, who has also won 20 Grand Slam titles, said on Saturday. “If he’s playing finally, OK. If he’s not playing, The Australian Open will be a great Australian Open with or without him.”

But Martina Navratilova, the Hall of Fame player and analyst, told the Sunrise television program in Australia that Djokovic should withdraw on his own to end the drama. “It’s just the right thing to do,” she said.

No matter what people think of Australia concerning their covid actions, it is their country and they are doing what they think best. Couldn’t be any worse than the allowance of illegals entering our country with no history or testing at all and our government is not only supporting the action, they are assisting it. So each end of the scale may be wrong, but at least Australia is trying to protect rather than open the flood gates like we have. And Djokovic has not done a whole lot in his actions to stay within the limits of the exemption he received originally. He screwed up. Pay the penalty.

wy69