Novak Djokovic not told 'so-called medical exemption' would be accepted - government court documents claim

Watch: Novak Djokovic not told 'so-called medical exemption' would be accepted - government court documents claim

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.

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 and that he had completed an Australian Traveller Declaration before journeying to the country.

But the government said: "It had not represented to the applicant that his so-called 'medical exemption' would be accepted."

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".