Two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage have taken digs at each other on social media over Brexit and immigration.
The row erupted after Farage shared a video on Twitter of him being shown around Novak Djokovic’s trophy by the Serb’s brother, Djordje.
In response, Murray tweeted: “Please record the awkward moment when you tell them you’ve spent most of your career campaigning to have people from Eastern Europe deported.”
Farage responded by tweeting: “Dear Andy, you clearly don’t understand politics or the Brexit campaign but are filled with prejudice.
“Concentrate on the tennis and, a word of advice, crack a smile every now and again.”
The row comes as world number one men’s tennis player Djokovic won an appeal against a decision to refuse him a visa in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia ahead of the Australian Open.
Judge Anthony Kelly quashed the visa cancellation and ordered the Australian Government to pay legal costs and release Djokovic from detention within half an hour.
Djokovic has been detained at an immigration facility in Melbourne since Thursday morning after his visa was cancelled following scrutiny of the medical exemption he had secured to travel to the first tennis major of the year.
Murray has expressed concern for the Serb and says his predicament is “really not good for tennis at all”.
“I think everyone is shocked by it, to be honest,” five-time Australian Open finalist Murray told reporters in Australia.
“I’m going to say two things on it just now. The first thing is that I hope that Novak is OK. I know him well, and I’ve always had a good relationship with him and I hope that he’s OK.
“The second thing, it’s really not good for tennis at all, and I don’t think it’s good for anyone involved. I think it’s really bad.”
Djokovic’s lawyers have claimed he was granted a vaccine exemption to enter Australia because he contracted Covid-19 last month.
In court documents published on Saturday, it was stated Djokovic recorded a positive test on December 16, and has “not had a fever or respiratory symptoms of Covid-19 in the last 72 hours”.
According to his legal team, Djokovic was provided with a letter from the Chief Medical Officer of Tennis Australia recording he had a medical exemption from Covid vaccination.
It is claimed that the exemption certificate was “provided by an Independent Expert Medical Review panel commissioned by Tennis Australia”, and that “the decision of that panel had been reviewed and endorsed by an independent Medical Exemptions Review Panel of the Victorian State Government”.
Djokovic’s lawyers added that he was granted an “Australian Travel Declaration” because he was told by the authorities that [he met] the requirements for a quarantine-free arrival into Australia”.
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