AAP

Serbian tennis subordinate Novak Djokovic rides successful car arsenic helium leaves a authorities detention installation earlier attending a tribunal proceeding astatine his lawyers bureau successful Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. A national tribunal proceeding has been scheduled for Sunday, a time earlier the men's No. 1-ranked tennis subordinate and nine-time Australian Open champion was owed to statesman his rubric defence astatine the archetypal Grand Slam tennis tourney of the year. (James Ross/AAP via AP)

DUBAI – Novak Djokovic arrived aboriginal Monday successful Dubai aft his deportation from Australia implicit its required COVID-19 vaccination ended the No. 1-ranked men's tennis player's hopes of defending his Australian Open title.

The Emirates level carrying Djokovic touched down aft a 13 1/2-hour formation from Melbourne, wherever helium had argued successful tribunal helium should beryllium allowed to enactment successful the state and vie successful the tourney nether a aesculapian exemption owed to a coronavirus corruption past month.

Dubai International Airport was quiescent aboriginal Monday greeting arsenic flights from the Australia and Asia began to arrive. Passengers wearing mandatory look masks collected their bags and walked retired of the cavernous terminal. The archetypal Muslim telephone to prayers earlier the sunrise echoed implicit the terminal.

It wasn't instantly wide wherever Djokovic planned to question next. The Dubai Duty Free tennis tournament, which Djokovic won successful 2020, doesn't commencement until Feb. 14.

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Dubai, the commercialized superior of the United Arab Emirates, doesn't necessitate travelers to beryllium vaccinated, though they indispensable amusement a antagonistic PCR trial to committee a flight.

Djokovic had won 9 Australian Open titles, including 3 successful a row, and a full of 20 Grand Slam singles trophies, tied with rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the astir successful the past of men’s tennis. Federer is not playing portion recovering from injury, and Nadal is the lone erstwhile Australian Open men's champion successful the tournament that began Monday.

Djokovic’s visa was initially canceled connected Jan. 6 by a borderline authoritative who decided helium didn’t suffice for a aesculapian exemption from Australia’s rules for unvaccinated visitors. He was exempted from the tournament’s vaccine rules due to the fact that helium had been infected with the microorganism wrong the erstwhile six months.

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He won an entreaty to enactment for the tournament, but Australia's migration curate aboriginal revoked his visa. Three Federal Court judges decided unanimously Sunday to affirm the migration minister’s close to cancel Djokovic’s visa.

Vaccination amid the pandemic was a request for anyone astatine the Australian Open, whether players, their coaches oregon anyone astatine the tourney site. More than 95% of each Top 100 men and women successful their tours’ respective rankings are vaccinated. At slightest 2 men — American Tennys Sandgren and Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert — skipped the archetypal large tourney of the twelvemonth owed to the vaccine requirement.

Djokovic's effort to get the aesculapian exemption for not being vaccinated sparked choler successful Australia, wherever strict lockdowns successful cities and curbs connected planetary question person been employed to effort to power the dispersed of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.

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