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Novak Djokovic<\/strong><\/a> has received an apology from an Australian reporter following some rude comments over the weekend at the 2025 Australian Open<\/em>.<\/p>\n The 37-year-old tennis star skipped a post-match interview following his win against Jiri Lehecka<\/strong>, and it was due to some comments made by broadcast reporter Tony Jones<\/strong>. <\/p>\n \u201cNovak<\/strong> is overrated \u2026 Novak<\/strong>\u2018s a has-been \u2026 Novak<\/strong>, kick him out\u2026 I am glad that they can\u2019t hear me,\u201d Tony<\/strong> said during a live broadcast on Friday night. <\/p>\n Novak<\/strong> then shared a video of why he skipped the post-match interview<\/a> and how he felt about the comments made.<\/p>\n Now, Tony<\/strong> shared a public apology and explained his intent with the comments he made previously.<\/p>\n Keep reading to find out more\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s been said the last 24 hours, what\u2019s your reaction? Especially last night,\u201d Tony<\/strong> was asked during a Monday morning broadcast. Which you can watch here.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of disappointment that it\u2019s come to this. If I could give you a bit of a timeline here: the comments were made on the news on Friday night, which I considered to be banter, humor, which is consistent with most things I do whether it be the Sunday Footy Show<\/em> or the Morning Show<\/em> here. Having said that, I was made aware on the Saturday morning from Tennis Australia via the Djokovic<\/strong> camp that the Djokovic<\/strong> camp was not happy at all with those comments,\u201d Tony responded.<\/p>\n \u201cAs such, I immediately contacted the Djokovic<\/strong> camp and issued an apology to them. So this is 48 hours ago for any disrespect that Novak<\/strong> felt that I\u2019d caused.\u00a0And as I stand here now, I stand by that apology to Novak<\/strong>. If he felt any disrespect, which quite clearly he does. Now I should also say the disrespect was extended, I guess in many ways to the Serbian fans,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf I could turn back time, and I know we\u2019ve all got PhDs in hindsight, I think the one thing where I overstepped the mark, and this is certainly what\u2019s really sort of angered Novak Djokovic<\/strong> and his camp, is the last comment I made in that back and forth with the crowd: kick him out. Now, I can stand here and put whatever spin I want on that, but it can only be interpreted as a throwback to the COVID years when he was kicked out [for his vaccination status<\/a>].\u00a0Now that has angered Novak<\/strong>, which I completely understand now. It has been an unfortunate situation. It\u2019s been one of personal angst for Novak<\/strong>. It\u2019s quite clearly personal angst for me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Tony<\/strong> concluded, \u201cBut I just think the priority here now is to focus on the tennis again. He\u2019s got an amazing match here tomorrow night against Carlos Alcaraz<\/strong><\/a>. I hope his focus can now be on that, and my focus is now the broadcast again.\u201d<\/p>\n \n
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\u201cNow, as you know, being here over the seven years, we\u2019ve 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 and there was banter, so I thought what I was doing was an extension of that banter.\u00a0Quite clearly that hasn\u2019t been interpreted that way. So I do feel as though I\u2019ve let down the Serbian fans.\u00a0Now, I\u2019m not just saying this to try and wriggle out of trouble or anything. I genuinely feel for those fans.\u201d <\/p>\n