7th January, 2022
Czech tennis player, Renata Voráčová has been arrested by Australia’s Border Force, days after she was allowed to enter the country.
She is now being detained in the city’s Park Hotel where Novak Djokovic is being kept.
Border Force officials have also cancelled her visa.
Australia’s The Age newspaper said Voracova, world No. 80 had entered Australia with a vaccine exemption certificate.
She was granted the exemption on the basis she had been infected with COVID-19 in the last six months.
This was the same reason used by Novak Djokovic.
The 38-year-old Voracova has already played in a warm-up tournament. is being held in the same Melbourne inner-city hotel as Djokovic.
It was not clear if she will appeal against the decision cancelling her visa.
According to The Age, Border Force is also pursuing a third Australian Open participant, an official, who entered using the same vaccine exemption.
The Victorian Health Department and a Tennis Australia expert panel granted exemptions to the trio because the panels believed a prior infection warranted an exemption.
However, the federal government informed Tennis Australia in November it would not allow international arrivals to bypass vaccine requirements on this basis.
Tennis Australia believes there was a grey area in regard to whether the exemption reason was valid.
Her potential deportation raises a question about why she was let into the country in the first place if the federal government believed a prior infection was not a valid exemption.