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.
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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 hit him.
00:16The reason why I did not do an interview,
00:20that is a 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
00:29what happened. The reason why I chose not to do that
00:32is because a few days ago a famous sports journalist
00:36here from Australia who works for a main broadcaster
00:40of Australian Open, Channel 9, decided 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, neither 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, right,
01:12and I know we've all got PhDs in hindsight,
01:14I think the one thing where I've overstepped the mark,
01:18and this is certainly what really sort of angered
01:21Novak Djokovic in his camp,
01:23is 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
01:54is to focus on the tennis again.
01:56He's got an amazing match coming up tomorrow night
01:59against 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.