By Sonali Paul and Cordelia Hsu

MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic yesterday warmed up for his bid to win a record 21st Grand Slam title at next week’s Australian Open, hitting practice shots at Melbourne Park, but he still faces the threat of deportation.

A week after his arrival in Australia, Djokovic finally reached the tennis court after a judge on Monday quashed the federal government’s decision to cancel his visa.

But the world number one could still be detained by the federal government for a second time and deported. Immigration Minister Alex Hawke’s office said he was considering whether to use his discretionary power to cancel Djokovic’s visa.

Australia has a policy barring non-citizens or non-residents from entry unless they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It allows for medical exemptions but the government argued that Djokovic, who is not vaccinated, did not provide adequate justification for an exemption.

The court ruled Djokovic was treated unfairly by officials on his arrival and ordered his visa cancellation be overturned. It did not, however, address whether his exemption – based on Djokovic contracting COVID-19 last month – was valid.

Djokovic’s case provoked a row between Canberra and Belgrade and fuelled heated debate over mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies.

Public opinion in Australia, which is battling an Omicron wave of infections and where more than 90% of the adult population is double vaccinated, has been largely against the player.

Melbourne endured the world’s longest coronavirus lockdown and Victoria state has Australia’s highest number of COVID-19 deaths.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office said he spoke with Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, on Monday and explained Australia’s non-discriminatory border policy.

In an interview with Reuters, Brnabic said she felt neither optimistic or pessimistic over to whether Djokovic would be allowed to compete but hoped for a final decision soon.

“Uncertainty is not good for any of the stakeholders, neither Djokovic nor the Australian Open,” she said.

The ATP, the governing body of men’s tennis, applauded the court ruling, saying the dispute was “damaging on all fronts”.

Djokovic, who expressed his gratitude to the judge and his determination to compete at the first major of the year in a Twitter post on Monday, did not publicly address the situation yesterday.

He was filmed by media helicopters practising at Rod Laver Arena amid tight security at Melbourne Park. He was also confirmed as top seed for the event.