Australia cancels Djokovic's visa, sending Open title defense into turmoil

SYDNEY. KAZINFORM Australia's immigration minister on Friday used his personal powers to cancel the visa of world tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic, throwing the Serbian's Australian Open defense into turmoil.

On Monday, a Melbourne court overturned the Australian border authorities' decision to cancel Djokovic's visa after he arrived in the country last week with a medical exemption for not being vaccinated, citing recovery from a recent Covid-19 infection, EFE reports.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke spent the past days deciding whether to use his ministerial power to overrule the court and cancel it again.

«Today I exercised my power under section 133C(3) of the Migration Act to cancel the visa held by Mr Novak Djokovic on health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so,» Hawke said in a statement.