(Reuters) – World number one Novak Djokovic, who has earned nearly $155 million in career prize money, faces at least the next 72 hours holed up in a hotel that has been used to house asylum-seekers in Australia.
Here is what we know about the hotel:
– The Park Hotel is in Carlton, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne. It has tennis courts as well as an outdoor swimming pool and a fitness centre. Rooms start at about $74 per night.
– The hotel has housed government detainees since December 2020, many of them held for years while seeking visas to remain in Australia. More than two dozen are there now.
– In October, there was a COVID-19 outbreak among refugees and asylum-seekers being held at the hotel. At least 22 people tested positive.
– In December, a fire at the hotel led to minor injuries, according to media. The cause has not been determined.
– Activists have held protests against their detention outside the hotel and there are messages on the exterior of the hotel and on the ground outside it against detentions and in support of detainees.
– Supporters of Djokovic, many of whom were draped in Serbian flags, rallied outside the hotel on Thursday. Some of them gathered for a vigil.
– The hotel’s website bills it as a “luxurious 4.5-star hotel set in a prime location”. It has 107 rooms, all air-conditioned.
– It is ranked 105 out of 170 hotels in Melbourne, according to travel firm Tripadvisor.
(Reporting by Karishma Singh and Manasi Pathak; Writing by Gerry Doyle; Editing by Robert Birsel and Andrew Heavens)
