Tennis world number one Novak Djokovic readied his legal guns Sunday for a battle to stay in Melbourne and defend his Australian Open title, arguing he has the all-clear because of a positive coronavirus test in December.

Djokovic’s fight to overturn the shock cancellation of his visa and his ensuing detention in a notorious Melbourne immigration facility will culminate in a highly publicised online hearing in federal court on Monday.

The vaccine-sceptic Serbian star awaited the showdown holed up in the former Park Hotel, a five-storey facility that holds about 32 migrants trapped in Australia’s hardline immigration system—some for years.

Nobody is allowed in or out except staff.

More than 100 protesters, many of them migrant rights activists, gathered in a park opposite the hotel.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

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