Serbian tennis star and anti-vaxxer Novak Djokovic disclosed in a court filing Friday that he tested positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 16, arguing that his recovery from the virus made him eligible to enter Australia despite being unvaccinated.
It also apparently made him eligible to do a lot more on the day of, and the day after, his supposed positive test.
Photos posted by the Post of Serbia, the Serbian postal service, the Tennis Association of Belgrade, and Djokovic himself indicate the athlete made multiple mask-free appearances throughout Serbia on Dec. 16 and Dec. 17, including at an event featuring multiple young children. Some of the photos were first reported by the Daily Mail.
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Djokovic was given a commemorative stamp by the Serbian postal service on Dec. 16, the day of his alleged positive result. Photos posted by the Post of Serbia show Djokovic appearing with the organization’s leader in person, with the two not wearing masks.
“It is a great honour for the Post of Serbia to present, in the year that is the most important for Novak Djokovic's career, a philatelic issue dedicated to our best athlete of all times,” Zoran Đorđević, the service’s acting director, said in a statement. “With gratitude to Novak for honouring us with his presence today at the ceremony in the PTT Museum, and in the name of the employees of the Post I wish him much more success in his career.”
Djokovic later posted the photos to his own social media platforms the next day, thanking the organization for the “rare gift.”
“I’m humbled!!” he wrote on Twitter.
Djokovic later appeared at a panel for his foundation that evening, speaking to a crowd indoors and without a mask. The next day, he appeared at an event organized by the Tennis Association of Belgrade, hugging and posing with children during an awards ceremony—while all were unmasked.
The revelations come as Djokovic has been locked in a legal dispute with Australia after the country canceled his visa for the Australian Open because he failed to provide sufficient evidence for a vaccine exemption.
Djokovic’s lawyers have appealed the decision and claimed the federal government misinterpreted the rules for those who have had a prior case of COVID-19 within six months. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government’s decision was “simply a matter of following the rules.” The risk for Djokovic is plenty—if he loses the appeal, he risks being barred from the country for up to three years.
An agent for Djokovic did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on when exactly the athlete received his test result in December.
