Doing some digging into precedents, it seems clear that the Djokovic deportation is delaying the #AusOpen scheduling release considerably.

In both 2017 + 2018, the Day 1 OOP was released on Saturday evening; it's now Sunday afternoon.

This is holding the other players in limbo.

(Periodic and important reminder that Djokovic could have avoided all this rigamarole by simply getting vaccinated like 97%+ of his tennis player peers have.)

Hasn't really been discussed during this whole fiasco, but I have to think this entire debacle would severely undermine Djokovic's ability to be seen as a selfless, uniting leader for players under the PTPA movement. There's considerable resentment for him hijacking the event.

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Ben Rothenberg

@BenRothenberg

Jan 15

Court is in session, with Novak Djokovic's case coming in front of a panel of three judges.

Watch here:

Whether or not you're on Novak Djokovic's side here, one thing is clear:

His arrival in Australia accelerated this country's courtroom streaming technology capabilities by *decades*.

Judge in his opening remarks says that this case easily reaches the relevance for this higher court because of framing:

"not the least of which the minister himself [said]...matters involved in the controversy go to the very preservation of life and health in the community."

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Ben Rothenberg

@BenRothenberg

Jan 13

#AusOpen draw ceremony is in an hour.

Here's a brief rulebook thread on how it will work with seedings re: Djokovic, as his fate remains unknown.

If Djokovic pulls out of #AusOpen in short time left before the draw (very unlikely), #2 Daniil Medvedev would become #1 seed.

If Djokovic pulls out after #AusOpen draw but before Day 1 order of play is released, #5 Andrey Rublev would be moved to Line 1 of draw to take Djokovic's slot. #17 Gael Monfils would move onto Rublev's line, and Alexander Bublik would become #33 seed and move onto Monfils' line.

If Djokovic pulls out after the #AusOpen Day 1 order of play is released, he would be replaced on Line 1 of the draw by a lucky loser who loses in the final round of qualifying.
🁠🁠🁠🁠🁠🁠🁠🁠

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Ben Rothenberg

@BenRothenberg

Jan 12

New:

In Instagram statement, Novak Djokovic says that he found out his positive PCR test after he went to the children’s award event but *before* he did a photoshoot and interview with L’Equipe.

Djokovic also added a bit on his Australian Travel Declaration misstatement, calling it a “human error and certainly not deliberate.”

L’Equipe has published an article on its interactions with Djokovic in Belgrade in December, when, according to Djokovic, he knew he was positive for coronavirus but they did not.

The article is in French and paywalled, but I will share some below:

lequipe.fr/Tennis/Article…

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Ben Rothenberg

@BenRothenberg

Jan 11

Visit from the trainer on the first changeover of Bernard Tomic's match. He's taking his pulse before serving down break point. #AusOpen

^Tomic was taking his own pulse before serving, to be clear. He got broken.

Tomic was hyping up his return to #AusOpen competition quite a bit on social media, but this is rough going for him against in-form Roman Safiullin.

Not sure if Tomic is blaming his physical difficulties on potential Covid, but he just complained to the umpire during the changeover that #AusOpen is relying on rapid antigen tests rather than PCR tests.

Tomic trails Safiullin 1-6, 1-2.

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