Tony Jones, an announcer at Australia’s Channel 9, has issued an apology for comments that led to Novak Djokovic refusing to speak with anyone from the channel during the Australian Open. Following his win over Jiri Lehecka, Djokovic declined the standard on-court interview with Channel 9’s Jim Courier. The root of Djokovic’s discontent was not with Courier but with Jones, who, during a segment with a group of Serbian fans, chanted, “Novak, he’s overrated, Novak’s a has-been, Novak, kick him out” before joking, “Boy, I’m glad they can’t hear me.”
As a result, Djokovic announced that he wouldn’t give interviews to Channel 9 until either Jones or the station offered a public apology. On Monday morning in Australia, Jones addressed the matter during a segment on the popular morning show Today. “If I can just give you a bit of a timeline here, the comments were made — on the news, on the Friday night — which I considered to be banter,” Jones said. “I considered it to be humor, which is consistent with most things I do… Having said that, I was made aware on Saturday morning, from Tennis Australia via the Djokovic camp, that they were not happy at all with those comments. 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 caused. And as I stand here now, I stand by that apology to Novak, if he felt any disrespect, which quite clearly he does.”
Jones continued by acknowledging the feelings of Serbian fans, saying, “Now I should also say, the disrespect was extended, I guess, in many ways to the Serbian fans. As you know, being here over the seven years, we’ve built up a nice rapport with the Serbian fans. They come here with the flags and they provide so much color and so much passion. There was banter. So I thought what I was doing was an extension of that banter. Quite clearly that hasn’t been interpreted that way. So I do feel as though I’ve let down the Serbian fans. Now I’m not just saying this to wriggle out of trouble or anything. I genuinely feel for those fans.”
Reflecting on his comments, Jones recognized that his “Kick him out” remark was likely the most offensive to Djokovic, recalling how the tennis star’s vaccination status had previously kept him from competing in both the Australian Open and US Open in 2022. “If I could turn back time — 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 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 explained. “Now I can sit here and put whatever spin I want in that. But it can only be interpreted as a throwback to the COVID years when he was kicked out. That has angered Novak, which I completely understand now.”
After expressing hope for a focus on tennis, Jones reiterated his apology and stated his willingness to meet in person with the Djokovic camp. “I can only again tell Novak what I told him 48 hours ago,” Jones said. “And that is, I do apologize if felt I disrespected him. I should also add that in the correspondence with Novak’s team, I agreed to meet with them in person to discuss all this. They came back and said, ‘Yes, we would be keen to meet in person. That hasn’t transpired but I’m sure it will over the next 24 hours.”
