Veteran broadcaster Tony Jones has attempted to put to bed the drama surrounding himself and Novak Djokovic after the 24-time grand slam champion refused to give an on-court interview following his win fourth-round win over Jiri Lehecka on Sunday night.
Djokovic later revealed that he was boycotting Channel Nine after comments Jones made while on air late last week.
“Welcome back to Melbourne Park, where you can see the Novak Djokovic fans, they’re in full voice. The chants are quite extraordinary,” Jones said in a live cross during the news on Friday, before chanting to the pack of fans.
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“Novak, he’s overrated,” he sang.
“Novak’s a has-been. Novak, kick him out.
“Boy, I’m glad they can’t hear me. Anyway, let’s get onto the tennis.”
Speaking on Nine’s Today Show on Monday morning, Jones shed some light on the situation and apologised for any offence caused.
“The comments were made on the news on Friday night, which I considered to be banter, I considered it to be humour, which is consistent with most things I do,” Jones said.
“I was made aware on Saturday morning from Tennis Australia, via the Djokovic camp, that the Djokovic camp was not happy at all with those comments.
“As such, I immediately contacted the Djokovic camp and issued an apology to them… for any disrespect that Novak felt that I’d caused.
“As I stand here now, I stand by that apology to Novak if he felt any disrespect, which quite clearly he does.
“If I could turn back time… I think the one thing where I overstepped the mark… is that last comment I made in that back and forth with the crowd: ‘Kick him out.’
“That has angered Novak, which I completely understand now.”
Djokovic has yet to respond publicly to Jones’ apology.
The 10-time Australian Open winner, whose straight-sets win over Lehecka set up a quarter final clash with Carlos Alcaraz, explained his reasons for skipping the interview
“I would like to just clarify the reason why the interview was not conducted on the court,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“A couple days ago the famous sports journalist [Tony Jones] who works for the official broadcaster, Channel Nine here in Australia, made a mockery of Serbian fans and also made insulting and offensive comments towards me.
“And since then, he chose not to issue any public apology. Neither did Channel Nine. So since they’re official broadcasters, I chose not to give interviews for Channel Nine.”
