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The Australian government did not tell Novak Djokovic that his “so-called medical exemption” would allow him to enter the country to compete in the Australian Open, court documents claim.

On Sunday, the government filed 13 pages of documents ahead of a hearing later to decide whether the Serbian tennis star can remain in the country or be deported. It also challenged Djokovic’s claim that he had a COVID infection at the end of last year.

The hearing is due to start at 10am on Monday morning (11pm Sunday UK time), after a request by the Home Affairs department to delay it to Wednesday was rejected.

Representatives for the world’s top-ranked tennis player say he was given a medical exemption after testing positive for COVID-19 on 16 December.

His legal team says they had an assessment from the Department of Home Affairs that his responses on his Australia Traveller Declaration indicated he met the requirements for quarantine-free entry into the country.

Read more on Djokovic’s team case – as court documents claim he was questioned for six hours

But the government said: “It had not represented to the applicant that his so-called ‘medical exemption’ would be accepted.”

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It argued “that says nothing about the power of the minister (or her delegate) to interrogate those responses, the evidence upon which they were based, and conclude that a cancellation power was enlivened under the Act upon his arrival into Australia”.

The government submission also challenged Djokovic’s infection claim, saying: “There is no suggestion that the applicant had ‘acute major medical illness’ in December 2021.

“All he has said is that he tested positive for COVID-19.”