Novak Djokovic’s arrogance was his downfall

The Australian government’s decision to cancel the world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic’s visa was inevitable in the end.

Things started well for Djokovic. On Monday he won his initial match in the law courts when his QC-led legal team successfully challenged his visa cancellation as a breakdown of procedural fairness.

After this utter humiliation, it seemed unlikely that Scott Morison’s embattled government would overturn the Federal Circuit Court judge’s ruling. But on Friday evening local time the umpire struck back. Australian immigration minister Alex Hawke used his personal discretion under the country’s migration law to cancel the Serbian’s visa, citing ‘health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so.’

What changed the government’s mind? They were first aided by the fact that Djokovic admitted to making untrue declarations on his immigration forms. It also emerged that he attended public events maskless and undistanced in Serbia when he knew he may have had Covid-19, and was interviewed by French journalists when he knew he had the virus.