New round in the Djokovic saga: For the first time since he was arrested by Australian border guards last Thursday night, the first in the tennis world rankings has now commented on his own mistakes and apologized. In a statement posted on Instagram, Novak Djokovic cites an alleged mistake made by his "team" in relation to the entry visa to defend his title at the Australian Open: it was an "administrative error" that his agent filled out the entry form ticked the wrong box. Djokovic stated that he had not been abroad 14 days before entering Australia - which is not true, as pictures of Djokovic on the Internet show. "It was human error and certainly not planned," he tries to apologize.

Christoph Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia / Pacific based in Singapore.

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That will not help the Serbs, however: because every person entering the country has to confirm that he is stating the truth on the forms.

The pages are also displayed digitally again "to be read over" before the send button is pressed.

In that case, Australia would have every right to withdraw his visa.

One sentence in Djokovic's posting is likely to annoy the Australians in particular: "We live in challenging times in a global pandemic and such mistakes sometimes happen," wrote the athlete on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, on the other hand, made a very early decision on Thursday last week by saying that "rules are rules".

Hundreds of Australians have not been given any errors in information in forms in the past months of the pandemic.

"That was a mistake in assessment"

The Serb also admitted for the first time on Wednesday that he had been infected with the coronavirus - the entry requirement to be able to travel to Australia without vaccinations - but had previously appeared in his home country without a mask. Nevertheless, he spoke of "continued misinformation" that needed to be corrected. According to his statement on the Internet, he was at a basketball tournament in Belgrade on December 14th. According to reports about some participants who tested positive, he underwent two tests on December 16 - a rapid test with negative results and an "official and approved PCR test". He had no symptoms, took another rapid test the next day with negative results, and then took part in an event with children.

Only then did Djokovic receive the positive result of the PCR test from the previous day. Nevertheless, the next day, December 18, he went to a long-agreed interview and photo opportunity with the French sports magazine "L'Equipe". He kept his distance and wore a mask that he only took off for taking pictures. "That was a mistake in assessment and it is clear that I should have postponed this commitment," he now writes.

Meanwhile, the magazine “Der Spiegel” and the group Zerforschung in Germany speak of inconsistencies with a view to the PCR test reported by Djokovic. The QR codes of the two tests - positive on December 16, as Djokovic explained on Wednesday and negative on December 22, should raise questions. It could be that the positive test wasn't done until December 26th. The 34-year-old tennis professional has not yet commented on this in Melbourne.

Djokovic had recently come under increasing pressure because more and more contradictions between the statements of his lawyers on the one hand and documents and photos that were posted on social media weeks ago became apparent on the other. The Australian government postponed on Wednesday afternoon (local time) the decision expected for that day on the second and final withdrawal of the entry visa. She had received a plethora of other documents from Djokovic's lawyers.

Whether the government in Canberra will dare to withdraw his visa from the tennis star a second time for one reason or another remains to be seen, while Djokovic continues to train in Melbourne. A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said on Wednesday afternoon in Australia only: "Mr Djokovic's lawyers have recently submitted additional extensive documents and supporting documents that should be relevant to the possible cancellation of Mr Djokovic's visa." This will of course be the period the decision-making process.

From a legal point of view, it would be a stroke of the pen for Hawke to expel the Serbs after all. Since this is a pure and exclusive ministerial decision, he only has to justify it by stating that Djokovic would pose a danger to himself or others if he was infected - he does not have to respond to any attempts at fraud by the Serb, but only to possible consequences for him or her the Australian society. It is 93 percent vaccinated, but is currently being swept over by an omicron wave. Every day there are new record numbers of infections and crisis teams meet with a view to supplying the country with food because of the failure of the infected workers.

In addition, after the further inconsistencies and the mistake when filling out the visa form, more and more sympathy for a deportation of the Serbs is building up among the population.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has also committed himself: “It makes no sense to me that an elite tennis player is accepted while the Australians themselves make extraordinary sacrifices.” His colleague Kristina Keneally, an expert on domestic politics, seconded: “Now they have to Australians are really asking if they can trust the Morrison government to enforce entry rules at the border. "