On his record, Novak Djokovic deserves to be rated as the greatest singles tennis player of the last 50 years. Twenty-four Grand Slam titles. An Olympic gold medal. Ninety-nine tournament wins overall. Goodness knows how many finals appearances. Some say he’s the greatest of all time: the Goat.
Contrast that with Tony Jones. A veteran Australian sports journalist and broadcaster specialising in Australian Rules football, he’s little known outside Melbourne, let alone Australia. As the local sport presenter for Australian Open host broadcaster, the Nine network, Jones is at Melbourne Park fronting a morning magazine-style programme and doing live crosses to Nine’s national news bulletin.
Could it be that the great champion is feeling less secure and infallible?
It was in one of those crosses that Jones was distracted by raucous Djokovic supporters, brandishing Serbian flags and posters of their favourite, and making a lot of noise. He turned to the crowd below, and called out, in a sing-song voice, ‘Novak, he’s overrated. Novak’s a has-been. Novak, kick him out’, before turning the camera and adding, ‘Boy, I’m glad they can’t hear me’ and moving on to his match report.
Jones’s ‘comedy’ turn was over in less than 15 seconds, but the repercussions are overshadowing the tournament and its excellent tennis delighting fans around the world.
Djokovic certainly is not amused. When he next appeared on court in Sunday night, defeating Czech Jiri Lehecka in straight sets and setting up a quarter-final with the man who defeated him is last year’s Wimbledon final, Carlos Alcaraz, Djokovic refused to do the mandatory on-court interview with former championship player, Jim Courier. In a tweeted self-filmed video straight afterwards – retweeted approvingly by the ubiquitous Elon Musk – Djokovic made it clear he was retaliating against the host broadcaster for Jones’s remarks.
‘A couple of days ago, a famous sports journalist 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,’ he told reporters at Melbourne Park.
‘Since then, he chose not to issue any public apology, neither did Channel Nine. Since they are the official broadcaster, I chose not to give interviews to Channel Nine. I have nothing against Jim Courier and the Australian public, and it was a very awkward situation for me to face on the court today’, he said.
He then went on to his post-match press conference to say he wouldn’t do on-court interviews until Jones and Nine apologised for their disrespect, and that he would happily cop any fines for doing so.
On Monday morning, on national Australian television, Jones delivered his apology, albeit with self-justification. He said he saw his comments as humorous ‘banter’ with the pro-Serbian crowd, but acknowledged he had given offence and had contacted Djokovic’s camp to apologise directly.
‘If I could turn back time … 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.’
‘That has angered Novak, which I completely understand now’, Jones said. Whether his televised apology will appease Djokovic, and he lifts his interview boycott, will only be revealed if he wins against Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday.
Jones’s attempt at humour was foolish, heavy-handed and fell flat, especially given Djokovic’s ongoing super-sensitivity over actually having been kicked out of the country in 2022 over his Covid-19 vaccination stance. Jones shouldn’t have said it, has realised what a prize chump he was – no doubt aided by the avalanche of social media criticism, including by many of Djokovic’s playing peers – and has apologised, as has his Nine Network employer.
Djokovic, on the other hand, turned prima donna and over-reacted massively to something that he should have laughed off as a tasteless and unfunny irritant. He talked of disrespect, and he was certainly disrespected. Yet this is the same Djokovic who, when he was up-and-coming, made a name for himself by mocking fellow players in performing on-court impressions of their style and behaviour. He presumed those players could take a joke, but as the ‘greatest of all time’ his skin is, as the Telegraph’s Simon Briggs wrote, so thin as to be translucent.
Perhaps the answer is in Jones’s thoughtless gibes about Djokovic being a has-been and overrated – things he most definitely is not. At 37 he is, however, no longer world number one, and is entering the twilight of his illustrious tennis career, with the prospect of many more Grand Slams and other glittering prizes diminishing. It’s understandable if, as with most of us when we’re getting on a bit, Djokovic is feeling more reflective and less absolutely confident in his own abilities and that, inadvertently, the journeyman Australian journalist mouthed what is playing in the back of Djokovic’s mind.
Could it be that the great champion is feeling less secure and infallible than he has been for the best part of 20 years? Or is he deliberately using Jones’s perceived insults as self-motivation to get him past the young gun, Alcaraz, who shows every sign of being the pretender to Djokovic’s throne?
We’ll find out tomorrow.
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