They emphasize that the treatment of Nole affects diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The president of the Serbian Parliament, Ivica Dacic, declared this Saturday that his country’s relations with Australia will suffer due to the way in which the authorities of that country are treating tennis player Novak Djokovic.
In addition, he accused Canberra of trying to “prevent” ATP top ranked Djokovic “from becoming the best tennis player in history.”
“That deal is shameful and needs to be made clear to Australia,” Dacic told Serbian public television station RTS.
He recalled that the 34-year-old Serbian tennis player traveled to Australia to play the Grand Slam after receiving a medical exemption from the Australian organizer of the tournament (January 17-30) and thus being able to play without being vaccinated against covid-19.
“The case is not special or specific, here it is about the politicization of the matter,” said the parliamentarian.
After assuring that other tennis players entered Australia with the same exemption as Djokovic’s, he asked: “Why does someone behave that way?” with the world’s first racket.
“He is the number one tennis player, an international name and a legend, and such behavior is rare, shameful and brazen,” insisted the Serbian politician, and affirmed that Djokovic is already the “winner” in this matter.
In this context, he accused the Australian authorities of not allowing the tennis player to play the tournament to “prevent (Djokovic) from becoming the best tennis player in history.”
If he won the Australian Open, where he triumphed nine times, Djokovic would break the world record with 21 Grand Slam titles.
The Serbian tennis player arrived in Melbourne last Wednesday but the border authorities revoked his visa and transferred him to a hotel intended to retain asylum seekers, which the tennis player’s family described as “dirty” and “terrible”.
There he awaits, deprived of his belongings except his mobile phone, predictably until Monday, the ruling of an Australian court on his appeal for the revocation of the visa.
Serbia has asked, so far to no avail, the Australian authorities to allow Djokovic to await the decision in a private home he had rented to stay in during the tournament.
According to the tennis player’s lawyers in a document quoted today by the Australian media, the medical exemption that the tennis player received is due to the fact that he was infected with SARS-CoV-2 last month.
“Mr. Djokovic had received, on December 30, 2021, a letter from Tennis Australia’s medical director recording that he had been provided a ‘medical exemption from COVID vaccination’ because he had recently recovered from COVID,” they note. .
The lawyers added that “at that time 14 days had passed since the positive PCR test and that the tennis player” had not had a fever or respiratory symptoms of covid-19 “in the previous 72 hours.
With 354 weeks at the head of the ATP ranking, Djokovic already holds a record. In addition, he finished the year as number one for the seventh time and is the winner of 37 Masters 1,000 titles, which is also an unprecedented record.
He is also the only tennis player who has won each Master at least twice. (D)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
