Legal action, locked in a hotel for refugees, state case in Australia: the surreal 48 hours of Novak Djokovic

The fate suffered by the world number one, locked up pending a court decision on Monday, goes beyond the strict framework of tennis.

Arriving in Melbourne on Wednesday evening, Novak Djokovic certainly did not expect to be greeted like a plague victim and to live the following hours like a criminal. After a nightmarish night at the airport where his visa was refused, the life, however not very calm, of the Serbian took on a surreal dimension by becoming a matter of state in Australia while creating almost a diplomatic incident between Serbia and Australia. Placed in a quarantine hotel pending a court decision on Monday, the world number one had to relive his last 48 hours several times.