A bid by Australian government officials to delay Novak Djokovic’s visa hearing until after the Australian Open draw has been completed, has failed.

The Australian government had hoped to push his hearing to Wednesday, but the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, who submitted for the extension was left disappointed as the presiding judge, Judge Anthony Kelly, rejected the change of date.

However, Kelly hasn’t completely thrown the case out, he allowed the government to submit for another extension on Monday to delay the hearing.

The Serbian is currently being detained and under strict instructions to stay at Melbourne’s Park Hotel which houses refugees and asylum seekers, after he was refused entry into the country following a mix-up with his visa and scrutiny over his reasons for being granted a medical exemption.

The 20 time Grand Slam winner’s lawyers have claimed that he had a medical exemption due to him returning a positive test within the last six months as he became infected with the virus on December 16, despite Tennis Australia being previously adamant that all players and staff must be fully vaccinated in order to play in event in the country.

His lawyers also claim that the 34-year-old was given a letter from the Chief Medical Officer of Tennis Australia officially saying that he had a medical exemption from the Covid-19 vaccine which was “provided by an Independent Expert Medical Review panel commissioned by Tennis Australia” and “the decision of that panel had been reviewed and endorsed by an independent Medical Exemptions Review Panel of the Victorian State Government.”

source yahoo.com