After his defeat in a federal court, tennis star Novak Djokovic left Australia on Sunday evening.

The 34-year-old Serb took off at 10:52 p.m. (local time) on flight EK409 from Melbourne to Dubai.

Shortly before 6 p.m., the three judges responsible had rejected the objection by the world number one to the repeated cancellation of his visa on Friday.

Djokovic will miss the Australian Open, which begins on Monday, where he is the record winner with nine wins.

In a written statement, the defending champion had already stated that he was "extremely disappointed with the decision".

However, he had also emphasized that he would respect them and cooperate with the responsible authorities regarding his departure.

This was preceded by an ongoing dispute between Djokovic and the authorities since his arrival in Melbourne on January 5th.

The 20-time Grand Slam winner was unvaccinated and entered the country with a medical exemption and wanted to crown himself as the sole major record winner with a triumph at the Australian Open from Monday.