Czech tennis player Renata Voracova has left Australia, after visa complications saw her swept up in a furore over the country's COVID-19 vaccine exemptions.
Voracova joined men's No.1 Novak Djokovic in Australian immigration detention, despite being allowed into the country and playing in a match, before her visa was cancelled.
While Djokovic has challenged his visa cancellation, doubles specialist Voracova, 38, decided to leave, telling Czech news site idnes.cz she would not challenge, because of the time it would take to wait and not train before the Australian Open later this month.
"Voracova left Australia on Saturday based on her own decision to end her participation in the tournament, due to complications with her visas," says the Czech Foreign Ministry. "The decision was not based on her expulsion from the country."
The ministry is waiting for a response from Australian authorities to a diplomatic note sent on Friday.
Voracova was unvaccinated, but had an exemption, after becoming ill with COVID-19 before Christmas, around the time she had planned to get vaccinated, she told idnes.cz.
She entered the country and played in Melbourne earlier this week, but was then detained in the same hotel as Djokovic.
Voracova describes the experience of landing in detention as like being in an action movie.
"I can't say they were mean to me," says Voracova. "But I was not prepared for the way everything played out.
"Several practices in quarantine are not pleasant... I feel a bit like in prison."
She had her windows shut tight and escorts in the hallways, she says.
ABC News reports Voracova has left for Dubai.
In his legal challenge, Djokovic claims he was given medical exemption from vaccination, because he contracted COVID-19 last month.
Australia's government has released a letter showing it wrote to Tennis Australia in November, saying prior infection with COVID-19 was not necessarily grounds for exemption in Australia.
Reuters.
