Czech tennis player Renata Voracova has now left Australia after complications over her visa that saw her caught up in the controversy that has engulfed world No.1 Novak Djokovic.
Voracova joined Djokovic at the same immigration detention hotel in Melbourne on Thursday amid the dramas over the country's handling of COVID-19 vaccine exemptions.
Unlike Djokovic, she had already been allowed into the country and had played in a match before her visa was cancelled.
Yet while Djokovic continues a legal challenge against his visa cancellation, 38-year-old doubles specialist Voracova has opted to leave, the Czech Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday.
Voracova told the Czech news site idnes.cz that she would not appeal because she wouldn't have time to train properly before the Australian Open, which begins on 17 January.
"(Renata) Voracova left Australia on Saturday based on her own decision to end her participation in the tournament due to complications with her visas," the Ministry said.
"The decision was not based on her expulsion from the country."
The ministry said it was waiting for a response from Australian authorities to a diplomatic note that it had sent on Friday.
Voracova was not vaccinated but she had planned to do so at around the time she became ill with COVID-19 before Christmas, she told the website.
It was understood that Voracova, the world No.81 doubles player, left on a flight to Dubai.
Meawhile, Djokovic has said in his legal challenge to being refused entry to Australia that he had been given medical exemption from vaccination because he had contracted COVID-19 last month.
Novak Djokovic awaits the outcome of an appeal against the decision by the ABF his entry visa and deport him. Source: Press Association
Australia's government has released a letter showing it wrote to Tennis Australia, the local organising body, in November saying that prior infection with COVID-19 was not necessarily grounds for exemption.
On Saturday, .
"I'm in a room and I can't go anywhere," Voracova told Czech media.
"My window is shut tight, I can't open it five centimetres.
"And there are guards everywhere, even under the window, which is quite funny. Maybe they thought I would jump and run away.
"They bring me food and there's a guard in the corridor. You have to report, everything is rationed. I feel a bit like in prison."
More than 30 asylum seekers are also detained at the hotel.
Protesters have continued to rally outside the Park Hotel, including those there in support of refugees, Djokovic, and some from the anti-vaccination movement.
With SBS News
