GUWonder, as a citizen who doesn't particularly follow tennis I probably represent the majority of Australians. We really have had more pressing issues recently, as the rest of the world also has had.
But just to share my perspective, in case it may relieve any international backlash at what has gone on here with Novak's issues:
As I just posted, in Australia we have opened the gate and now Corona is rampant - perhaps 100,000's of cases a day. One more un-vaccinated person is really not going to change anything. Today. From that side I see to no real need to send Novak home. But...
From another side, many Australians, especially in Victoria where the tennis thing is happening, have suffered huge personal pain over the past two years of the Covid nightmare, where due to the government closures and restrictions that successfully fought the virus, many people lost jobs, businesses collapsed, schools closed, and citizens were barred from having weddings or travelling to say goodbye to loved one's who were dying. They really have suffered. So for them, who have complied with all the rules at their suffering, to have a mega-rich sporting type swan in and get an exemption that none of them could ever have hoped for is just a bit difficult to swallow.
Yes it is political - of course it is. You have an entire population pissed-off on one hand, and a state government and Tennis Australia on the other side who just want their Open to include the No.1 who happens to be anti-vax.
No winners here.
But I do dare to suggest that if me, as a no-body, "accidentally" made a false declaration on their visa application (that I had not travelled to other countries - as Novak's team apparently forgot), I would completely expect to be spat out and rejected by the system. No super legal team for me.
Australians, as a culture, do not admire superstars getting breaks that common folk would not get. And I do not find pleasure in knowing that I, as a tax-payer, have now been forced by a well-paid judge to pay for Novak's legal fees for his first challenge. I am sorely just trying to make ends meet right now.
Having said all that, although I do not "follow" tennis, am in admiration of Novak for his competence and drive in his chosen field. Good on him. I also agree with his stance that noone should be obliged to get a needle put in their arm to deliver an unwanted concoction. But in a societal sense, I also think that one's freedom to deny a vax should be equally held with the resignation that you lose certain privileges in taking that choice.