Djokovic vs Channel Nine: Tony Jones apologizes for tennis star's rejection

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Tony Jones has apologised to Novak Djokovic after the tennis star refused to be interviewed by Australian Open broadcaster Channel Nine after comments by the veteran newsreader last week.

The 10-time champion advanced to the quarter-finals with a straight sets win over Czech Jiri Lehecka on Sunday but declined to be interviewed on court by Jim Courier after the match, instead taking the microphone to briefly thank his fans.

It was initially believed he was upset by some members of the crowd, but the Serbian superstar revealed it was in protest of the behaviour of one of the Nine journalists, Tony Jones.

Tony Jones offered his public apology on Monday morning after saying he was surprised the episode had reached such a point. Source: Instagram

The veteran newsreader was doing a live broadcast from Melbourne Park on Friday night when a large group of Djokovic fans holding Serbian flags started cheering in the background behind him.

Jones sung to the fans: “Novak, he’s overrated … Novak’s a has-been. Novak, kick him out.”

While the comments were supposed to be a joke, he was widely criticised on social media.

Djokovic made a statement before the press conference to explain his silent stance.

Jones apologised to Djokovic on Monday morning, saying he “overstepped the mark”.

“If I could turn it back time right, and I know we’ve all got PhDs in hindsight, I think the one thing where I overstepped the mark, and this is certainly what’s really sort of angered Novak Djokovic and his camp, is the last comment I made in that back and forth with the crowd — ‘kick him out’,” Jones said on Nine.

“Now, I can stand here and put whatever spin on that, but it can only be interpreted as a throwback to the COVID years when he (Djokovic) was kicked out (over his vaccination status). Now, that has angered Novak, which I completely understand now. So look, it has been an unfortunate situation. It’s been one of personal angst for Novak. It’s quite clearly personal angst for me as well. But I just think the priority here now is to focus on the tennis again.”

He said he contacted Djokovic’s camp on Saturday to apologise.

“As such, I immediately contacted the Djokovic camp and issued an apology to them, so this is 48 hours ago, for any disrespect that Novak felt that I’d caused. And as I stand here now, I stand by that apology to Novak if he felt any disrespect, which quite clearly he does.”

In his video statement on X on Sunday, Djokovic said the situation was “awkward”.

“A couple of days ago, a famous sports journalist who works for official broadcaster Channel Nine here in Australia made a mockery of Serbian fans and also made insulting and offensive comments towards me.

“Since then, he chose not to issue any public apology, neither did Channel Nine, so since they are official broadcasters, I chose not to give interviews for Channel Nine.

“I have nothing against Jim Courier, neither the Australian public.

“It was a very awkward situation for me to face on the court today and it’s unfortunate.

“So I leave it to Channel Nine to handle this the way they think they see fit.”

Asked if this would be his ongoing position until he received an apology, Djokovic replied: “Yes, exactly”.

Jones was also a target for American player Danielle Collins after he labelled her a “brat” for her post-match reaction when she defeated Australian Destanee Aiava.