that he knows if he can win once again in melbourne, it would give him a 21st grand slam title and that would make him the most successful player in men s tennis history in terms of grand slam titles. other players have been weighing in. let s just put up a full screen of the major tournaments coming up. as of now djokovic is going to be competing in the australian open. we still need that to be fully rubber stamped. that one starting a week today. then we have the french open in paris, wimbledon later on this year in london and later on in new york city for the u.s. open. that s the time line in terms of grand slam opportunities trying to get number 21. rafa nadal, the spanish legend, also trying to get to number 1. a day ago he must have thought his path potentially to that title looked a lot clearer. not so as of right now but we
this really outraged australians pretty much across the board. djokovic and tennis australia misread the temperature of the country and the national mood for what it would be for his very contested arrival. australians have endured some pretty draconian lockdowns so it s pretty tough when someone comes in and gets away with this. ben rothenberg, thank you for joining us. appreciate it. the fate of ukraine hangs in the balance as critical talks get underway between the u.s. and russia in switzerland. we are live in geneva and kiev. that s coming up. a health system on the brink how afghanistan is struggling to provide even the most basic health care. highly recommend it! zifans love zicam s unique zinc formula. it shortens colds! zicam. zinc that cold! do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep? qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients
welcome back now. a quick update on our breaking news out of australia, the immigration minister has canceled the visa of unvaccinated tennis star novak djokovic for the second time. alex hawk says he used his personal power to do so because it s in the public s best interest, and the government is firmly committed to protecting borders, particularly in relation to the pandemic. now djokovic is expected to challenge the decision in court ahead of the australian open, which starts on monday. we are closely following this breaking news story. we ll have live reports later in the show. now let s go straight to our tennis expert. ben ben rothenberg joins us. have you had a chance to eyeball the statement? give us your reaction. yeah, i think the statement is pretty clear, but also relatively vague, just saying it s in the public interest.
again, and all of this over covid-19 protocol discrepancies. a new hearing is now pending, but the australian open starts monday, and as of now djokovic is scheduled to play. cnn s paula hancocks is in melbourne where djokovic will soon be detained. scott mcclean is in djokovic s home country of serbia. there s been moralies in this story than tennis matches. why did djokovic s visa get revoked again, and walk us through what we expect to happen in the coming hours. reporter: well, aina, in about three hours time we re expecting novak djokovic to go to an undisclosed location and to be interviewed once again by immigration officials. we know at that point he ll also be detained. he will then be accompanied by two australian border force officials to go to his his lawyer s office. this is all what we have learned from the friday night emergency
shall see. there s other quality players out there. nadal is interesting. he came out showing off his sympathy as well. he was saying, look, i do have sympathy to some degree for djokovic, this was a few days ago, but saying, look, the solution, he knew it well, was simple. he could have avoided all of this, rosemary, said nadal, if he just got vaccinated to enter australia. yeah. exactly right. phil black in melbourne. patrick snell here in atlanta. many thanks to both of you for joining us. appreciate it. i want to bring in david law now. he is co-host of the tennis podcast and joins us live from london. thank you so much for being with us. thank you. so how is this australian court decision playing out around the world even as people of course now start to digest what it actually means and as we wait to see if this is the end of it and whether, indeed, djokovic does eventually play in the australian open?