Belgrade sends message to Novak Djokovic: Come home, your people love you

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The people of Belgrade have made it clear to Novak Djokovic is always welcome to the capital city of Serbia. "Come home, Nole, your people love you," the message read.

Message for #Djokovic: “Come home, Nole, your people love you”.

This is in the neighborhood where he has a place 👇🏻 https://t.co/vYuM1uwOBs — Saša Ozmo (@ozmo_sasa) January 16, 2022

On Sunday, Djokovic lost his Australia visa appeal and he was deported from the country.

Chief Justice James Allsop said the decision to uphold Immigration Minister Alex Hawke's decision to cancel Djokovic's visa was unanimous. "To be clear this is not an appeal against the decision of the executive government, it is an application to the court as a separate arm of government.

... to review the decision of the minister for the lawfulness or legality of the decision on the 3 grounds put forward," Chief Justice Alisop said. "These grounds focused on whether the decision was, for different reasons, irrational or legally unreasonable.

It is no part of the function of the court to decide upon the merit or wisdom of the decision."

Djokovic accepted the court's decision

"I would like to make a brief statement to address the outcome's of today's Court hearing, I will now be taking some time to rest and recuperate, before making any further comments beyond this," Djokovic said in a statement.

"I'm extremely disappointed with the Court ruling to discuss my application for judicial review of the Minister's decision to cancel my visa, which means I cannot stay in Australia and participate in the Australian Open.

"I respect the Court's ruling and I will cooperate with the relevant authorities in relation to my departure from the country. "I'm uncomfortable that the focus of the past weeks has been on me and I hope that we can all now focus on the game and tournament I love, I would like to wish the players, tournament officials, staff, volunteers and fans all the best for the tournament.

"Finally, I would like to thank my family, friends, team, supporters, fans and my fellow Serbians for your continued support. You have all been a great source of strength for me."