Australian Open: Novak Djokovic addresses incident with father Srdjan, says 'we never will support any violence or war'
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ByEurosport
Updated 27/01/2023 at 14:40 GMT
Novak Djokovic says his father, Srdjan, does not support any war and that a comment to an individual holding a Russia flag has been mistranslated by some of the media. Footage emerged on Thursday of Srdjan standing next to a fan holding up a Russia flag at Melbourne Park. Djokovic addressed reporters about the incident following his semi-final win over Tommy Paul on Friday.
'I just held my nerve' - Djokovic tells Eurosport after beating Paul to reach final
Novak Djokovic has addressed a high-profile incident involving his father at the Australian Open, saying "it's unfortunate the misinterpretation of what happened escalated", and "it's not pleasant for me to go through this" after his semi-final win over Tommy Paul.
Srdjan issued a statement before his son’s straight sets win over American Tommy Paul on Friday saying he had "no intention of being caught up in this", and that he would not attend the semi-final match to avoid “disruption”.
Speaking to reporters after his win over Paul, the 21-time Grand Slam champion was adamant nobody in his family - including his father - supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or any other war. Djokovic also said the incident had been misinterpreted.
“I saw, as everybody else saw, what happened yesterday,” he said. “It was unfortunate that the misinterpretation of what happened yesterday has escalated to such a high level. There was, I would say, a lot of conversations with tournament director, with media and everyone else.
“It has got to me, of course, as well. I was not aware of it until last night. Then, of course, I was not pleased to see that.
“My father, my whole family, and myself, have been through several wars during the '90s. As my father put in a statement, we are against the war, we never will support any violence or any war.
“We know how devastating that is for the family, for people in any country that is going through the war. That's the first thing I want to say.
“The second thing I want to say, my father, as he said in the statement, has been going after every single match to meet with my fans at the main square here in Australian Open, to thank them for the support, to be with them, pay them respect, and make photos.
“The photo that he made, he was passing through. I heard what he said in the video. He said, 'cheers'.
“Unfortunately some of the media has interpreted that in a really wrong way. I'm sorry that that has escalated so much.
“But I hope people understand that there was absolutely no intention whatsoever to support any kind of war initiatives or anything like that.”
Djokovic added that his father believed he was standing next to a Serbian flag.
“My father, as I said, was passing through. There was a lot of Serbian flags around. That's what he thought. He thought he was making photo with somebody from Serbia. That's it. He moved on.
"Of course, it's not pleasant for me to go through this with all the things that I had to deal with last year and this year in Australia. It's not something that I want or need. I hope that people will let it be, and we can focus on tennis."
Djokovic, who will equal Rafael Nadal's record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles with victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas on Sunday, hopes his father will be in attendance for his final match.
He added: "Let's see. Of course, it wasn't pleasant not to have him in the box. It's a decision that we made together. Just didn't know how things will play out, I guess. Yeah, I hope to have him.
"I hope he's going to be feeling okay to be in the courts because I would like to have him there for the final."
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