Novak Djokovic snubs court interview after reporter mocks Serbian fans

Australian Community Media

Novak Djokovic boycotted the on-court interview with Jim Courier at the Australian Open after Channel 9 reporter Tony Jones openly mocked the Serbian tennis star and his fans.

Transcript

00:00Back to Melbourne Park where you can see the Novak Djokovic fans there in full voice.

00:05Yeah, the chants are quite extraordinary.

00:07Novak! He's overrated!

00:09Novak! So has the...

00:11Novak! Kick him out!

00:14Boy, I'm glad they can't hear me.

00:16The reason why I did not do an interview,

00:20that is the common practice after the matches,

00:23for the winner to do a post-match interview.

00:26So I just wanted to make sure that I clarify with everyone what happened.

00:30The reason why I chose not to do that

00:32is because a few days ago

00:34a famous sports journalist here from Australia

00:37who works for a main broadcaster of Australian Open, Channel 9,

00:42decided to mock Serbian fans

00:45and he made insulting and offensive comments towards me.

00:50So I was hoping he's going to apologise in public,

00:54which he hasn't done yet.

00:56Neither did Channel 9.

00:58So that's the only reason why I didn't do the interview.

01:02It was, of course, not a great feeling for me

01:05and it was quite awkward on the court.

01:08If I could turn back time,

01:12and I know we've all got PhDs in hindsight,

01:15I think the one thing where I've overstepped the mark,

01:19and this is certainly what's really angered Novak Djokovic in his camp,

01:23was the last comment I made in that back-and-forth with the crowd,

01:26kick him out.

01:27Now, I can stand here and put whatever spin I want in that,

01:30but it can only be interpreted as a throwback

01:33to the COVID years when he was kicked out.

01:35Now, that has angered Novak, which I completely understand now.

01:39So, look, it has been an unfortunate situation.

01:45It's been one of personal angst for Novak.

01:48It's quite clearly personal angst for me as well.

01:51But I just think the priority here now is to focus on the tennis again.

01:56He's got an amazing match coming up tomorrow night against Carlos Alcarez

02:00and I hope that his focus can now be on that

02:03and my focus is now the broadcast again.

02:06So, I can only again tell Novak what I told him 48 hours ago

02:13and that is I do apologise if he felt that I disrespected him.

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