Source : ABC NEWS
Tony Jones has spoken on the Nine Network this morning, issuing an apology to Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic refused to do the customary on-court interview with the host broadcaster following his fourth-round win over Jiří Lehečka on Sunday night.
The 10-time Australian champion felt Jones “made a mockery” of Serbian fans during a live TV broadcast last week.
This is what Jones had to say this morning.
The comments were made on the news on the Friday night, which I considered to be banter. I considered it to be humour, which is consistent with most things I do.
Whether it be the Sunday Footy Show, whether it be the morning show here. Having said that, 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.
Now. 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 now, I should also say the disrespect was extended, I guess in many ways to the Serbian fans.
Now, 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 colour and so much passion and 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 try and wriggle out of trouble or anything. I genuinely feel for those fans.
If I could turn 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.
Now I can stand 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.
Now that that has angered Novak, which I completely understand now. So, look, it’s 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’s got an amazing match coming up tomorrow night against Carlos Alcaraz, and I hope that his focus can now be on that. And my focus is now the broadcast again.
So, I can only again tell Novak what I told him 48 hours ago. And that is I do apologise if he felt that 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.
