World number one Novak Djokovic is to be deported from Australia on health grounds and will not play in the Australian Open.
Australian Government Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has used his personal power to cancel the Serb's visa for a second time.
Djokovic will thus not be able to defend his Australian Open title in Melbourne next week.
His legal team are likely to file an injunction to appeal the decision.
Djokovic was originally granted an exemption to play the tournament on the basis that he had recovered from Covid-19, but that criteria was not sufficient for the Australian Federal Government, who require entrants to either have a double vaccination or acceptable grounds for an exemption.
Hawke took four days to make his decision.
In a statement, he said:
"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.
This decision followed orders by the Federal Circuit and Family Court on 10 January 2022, quashing a prior cancellation decision on procedural fairness grounds.
In making this decision, I carefully considered information provided to me by the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Border Force and Mr Djokovic.
The Morrison Government is firmly committed to protecting Australia’s borders, particularly in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic."
34 year old Djokovic could now face a three year ban from obtaining a new visa to enter Australia.
He has courted controversy by admitting he didn't isolate after testing positive for Covid-19 in December. He also failed to register on his entry form that he had travelled to Spain in the 14 days prior to arriving in Australia, an omission he put down to an administrative error by his agent.
Djokovic needs just one more Grand Slam title to become statistically the most successful player of all time.
