Imagine staging a play where, as the cast assembles for the dress rehearsal, nobody has any idea whether the leading man will even show up. This is akin to the position that Craig Tiley and the rest of the Australian Open team find themselves in.

Many people will say that it serves Tiley right. As TA’s chief executive, he was the man who originally pressed for the inclusion of unvaccinated players with medical exemptions, suggesting that their presence “went to the heart of the Open’s viability”.

But Tiley could hardly have imagined that the uncertainty over Novak Djokovic’s participation would continue until the eve of the Australian Open itself. As Andy Murray observed on Friday evening, the whole saga “just seems like it’s dragged on for quite a long time now”. And while tennis might have received untold publicity from Djokovic’s legal wranglings, precious little of that has focused on the court.

One decision that Tiley has already made is to schedule Djokovic’s theoretical first-round match against fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic on Monday, denying him the possibility of an extra 24 hours grace in which to challenge his latest deportation order. (Tiley could have put Djokovic on Tuesday if he had wanted to be helpful, but this would surely have triggered further accusations of favouritism.)

An order of play was expected to be published before midnight on Friday, UK time. Because of arcane rules, that piece of paper will have consequences for the rest of the field. Rather than a reshuffling of the draw, with three seeds being shifted to face new opponents, the possible withdrawal of Djokovic’s name would now only affect one match.

Assuming that the federal government win their case on Sunday, and Djokovic is denied a chance to defend his title, this would become a straight swap. A “lucky loser” from the qualifying tournament – someone like Roman Safiullin, who was eliminated by Britain’s Liam Broady here on Friday night – would come in to face Kecmanovic.