Novak Djokovic gets his wish after making demand over angry Australian Open refusal
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Australian broadcaster Tony Jones has issued an apology after Novak Djokovic snubbed the traditional post-match interviews at the Australian Open. The Serbian won his fourth round match against Jiri Lehecka but, rather than do the usual on court interview in the aftermath of his victory with Jim Coureir, grabbed his things and walked straight off, instead doing his media duties in the press conference in front of the world's media.
Djokovic explained that his decision to reject the home broadcaster, Channel 9, was due to a comment, which he felt was derogatory towards people of his homeland, and so refused to engage with them. The ten-time Australian Open champion was left angered by Jones, a presenter on the Channel 9 network, and was further annoyed by the lack of an apology. One though has since been issued.
Jones said on air: "Unfortunately, my 'humour' the other night was misinterpreted as an attack on Novak,' he said. 'That was certainly not the case. I've been joking with Serbian fans throughout the tournament and this is – at least I thought so – a continuation of that.
"If you watch our morning show, you'll get an idea of how we work. At no point did I mean to show any disrespect to Novak and I apologise – there was certainly no intention to offend him. "I was made aware on the Saturday morning from Tennis Australia, via the Djokovic camp, that the Djokovic camp was not happy at all with those comments. I immediately contacted the Djokovic camp and issued an apology to them – 48 hours ago – for any disrespect which Novak felt I had caused.
