2022 In Between Grand Slam Thread

Nicholas Wood has proposed he will make submissions by midday Saturday, with the minister’s to follow by 10pm tomorrow, ready for a hearing on Sunday.

Wood says:

Mr Djokovic may be scheduled to play on Monday night or Tuesday night ... In those circumstances we’re very concerned about time.

Wood is blaming the government for giving the decision “shortly after 6pm on a Friday”, four days after the federal circuit court decision and more than a week after the original decision. He’s laying into media reporting that the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, was “burdened” by lengthy submissions from Djokovic.

Wood says Alex Hawke’s reasons stand in “stark contrast” to the ones used by the Border Force delegate.

He said:

The delegate said Mr Djokovic may infect other people because he’s unvaccinated. The present set of reasons is starkly different. The minister assumes in Mr Djokovic’s favour every single fact that might have been in issue previously, that he’s complied with the law, that he poses only a negligible risk to others, Mr Djokovic has a medical reason not to be vaccinated, and that Mr Djokovic is of good standing.

Wood says the central thrust of the case is that Hawke had a “binary” decision: that Mr Djokovic could stay in Melbourne leading to potential “excitement” in the anti-vax community; versus the forceable removal of a man of good standing who has a medical contraindication.

Wood says there is a “clear jurisdictional error” of “irrationality” in that the ground of “exciting anti-vax sentiment” is premised on Djokovic only having that impact if he remains in Australia.

“He has no rational basis to say” Djokovic staying would cause more anti-vax sentiment, Wood submitted.

"Mr. Djokovic has one challenge remaining"

I'd expect Karatsev to beat him but he's not a huge favourite.

Unfortunate story about Del Potro

His father, who died at the start of 2021 (after not recovering from a heart operation the previous month), had apparently taken/lost/stolen the vast majority of Del Potro's assets (30 million dollars)

now he still has a few million left so he's not on the streets and surely has some sponsorship etc as he has value there still but quite sad - loses his father then finds out this after (or so it sounds like)