{"id":219754,"date":"2025-01-20T12:42:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T12:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/20\/australian-broadcaster-apologises-to-novak-djokovic-after-has-been-comments\/"},"modified":"2025-01-20T12:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T12:42:12","slug":"australian-broadcaster-apologises-to-novak-djokovic-after-has-been-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/20\/australian-broadcaster-apologises-to-novak-djokovic-after-has-been-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian broadcaster apologises to Novak Djokovic after ‘has-been’ comments"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Australian broadcaster has apologised to Novak Djokovic and Serbian tennis fans after calling the\u00a024-time Grand Slam champion “overrated” and a “has-been”.<\/p>\n

Djokovic<\/a><\/strong>, 37, refused to give a customary post-match interview to Channel Nine anchor Jim Courier after beating Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic at the Australian Open<\/a><\/strong> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

He said in a press conference his annoyance was not directed at the crowd but another Channel Nine presenter, Tony Jones, who allegedly mocked a group of chanting fans on Friday by singing: “Novak is overrated, Novak’s a has-been, Novak kick him out.”<\/p>\n

The tennis star said that he also spoke to Craig Tiley, the head of Tennis Australia, telling him he would accept a fine for him not giving the interview, if the body decided to issue one.<\/p>\n

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Not referring to Mr Jones by name, Djokovic later posted on X on Sunday to say the comments “made a mockery of Serbian fans” and were “insulting and offensive” towards him.<\/p>\n

He said he hoped for a public apology and that he would continue to avoid speaking to Mr Jones and the Nine Network until “something is done”.<\/p>\n

Appearing on the Today programme on Monday, Mr Jones offered that apology, saying he meant the comments as “banter”.<\/p>\n

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\n Channel Nine presenter Tony Jones said his comments were ‘banter’. Pic: AP\/Mark Baker
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“I considered it to be humour, which is consistent with most things I do,” he said. “Having said that, I was made aware … that the Djokovic camp was not happy at all with those comments.<\/p>\n

“I immediately contacted the Djokovic camp and issued an apology to them. And as I stand here now, I stand by that apology to Novak.”<\/p>\n

He also said he felt he had “let down the Serbian fans”.<\/p>\n

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\n Djokovic and Jiri Lehecka shake hands after Sunday’s match. Pic: Reuters\/Edgar Su
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He said the one comment he particularly regretted was “kick him out”, which he accepted could only be construed as a reference to Djokovic’s deportation from Australia in a row over his Covid vaccination status in early 2022<\/a><\/strong>, Sky Sports News reported.<\/p>\n

Australia’s Nine Network also issued a statement Monday and apologised to Djokovic “for any offence caused from comments made during a recent live cross”.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Tennis star says ‘nobody got hurt’ as she brushes off booing<\/a>
Murray says he could help Djokovic be ‘best athlete of all time’<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It said: “No harm was intended towards Novak or his fans. We look forward to further showcasing his Australian Open campaign at Melbourne Park.”<\/p>\n

Djokovic is scheduled to play no 3 seed Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Australian broadcaster has apologised to Novak Djokovic and Serbian tennis fans after calling the\u00a024-time Grand Slam champion “overrated” and a “has-been”. Djokovic, 37, refused to give a customary post-match interview to Channel Nine anchor Jim Courier after beating Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic at the Australian Open on Sunday. He said in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/01\/768x432\/skynews-tony-jones-australian-open_6804919.jpg?20250120110232","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2598,755,17973,2102,1536,172934,1535],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219756,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219754\/revisions\/219756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}