From the New York Times, I'm Annie Coriel. This is The Daily.

Today, in most places, Australia's decision to deport the world's number one

men's tennis player looked like a controversy over athletes and the

COVID-19 vaccine. To the people of Australia, it became something different.

I spoke with my colleague, Australia Bureau Chief Damian Cave.

It's Friday, January 21st.

So Damian, over the last few weeks, I saw a lot of headlines about Novak Chokovic and

the Australian Open. And to be honest, my initial reaction was, okay, here's another

elite athlete whose vaccine status has caused this big commotion. But I'm

hoping you can help me understand the play by play. How we got to this point where

the tournament is in full swing, and Chokovic is not there. He's actually been

deported. Yeah, I mean, it's really been quite a dramatic saga. I mean, the Australian

Open is the first grand slam of the year. It's one of the biggest tennis events

in the world. And Novak Chokovic is the number one men's player in the world.

And he planned to come and hopefully win what would be his 21st grand slam, which

would make him the most winningest male tennis player in history. So for him, there

was a lot of stake. But you know, there's a big challenge for Chokovic, which is that

he's coming to Australia, which is a country that has a vaccine mandate for everyone

coming in. So you can't get into Australia unless you're vaccinated. And he hadn't

really been very clear about his vaccination status. He was pretty cagey about it.

And then at the last second or pretty close to when he arrives, he says, Oh, I got an

exemption to the mandate based on the fact that he said he had COVID in mid-December.

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