Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic spoke at a press conference after advancing to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. After finishing the match against Jiří Lehečka (3-0), an unusual situation occurred when Novak refused to give an on-court interview.
While it was initially thought that the reason was a hostile crowd, it was soon discovered that Djokovic was angry with channel “Nine”, which is the official broadcaster of the first Grand Slam of the season.
More specifically, he was angry with the channel’s journalist, Tony Jones, who during one broadcast turned to Novak’s fans and began to make at least inappropriate jokes.
“Novak is overrated, he’s past his prime… Get him out,” Jones said before turning and adding, “I’m glad they can’t hear me.”
That’s why Djokovic reacted.
“I’d like to say why I didn’t give the interview. A few days ago, a famous sports journalist working for the official AO broadcaster NINE mocked Serbian fans and insulted me. Since then, he has decided not to publicly apologize, nor has the channel “NINE”, so because they are the official TV rights holders, I decided not to give a statement. I have nothing against Courier or the Australian public. There was no opportunity to say what I think on the court at that moment so I did it. I’m leaving it to channel “NINE” to do what they think they should,” Djokovic said.
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He confirmed that the crowd had nothing to do with it.
“Well no, nothing special. Something different happens in every match. I’ve already explained why I didn’t give the interview, it’s not because of the crowd but because of channel ‘NINE’,” added Novak, who will not give interviews for that channel until they apologize.
He also talked about the problem with Craig Tiley, the tournament director.
“The same thing I told you. I haven’t seen him since that happened with the journalist, he communicated with my agent. He’s a great guy, he always tries to get the players everything they need. I just wanted him to know why I did it and what my reasons were. I told him if they want to punish me because I didn’t give an interview, that’s okay, I accept it, because I think it’s something that needed to be done and that’s it,” Djokovic continues.
Could this motivate him further?
“No. Not particularly. I’m very determined already. I’m not using this to add fuel to the fire. I’ve already said everything I think,” Djokovic concluded.
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Source: B92, Photo: Profimedia/B92