Nick Kyrgios has voiced his take on Novak Djokovic’s controversial allegations related to the food he was given during his detention in Australia three years ago. According to the Serb, he was provided poisoned food, which led to him falling quite ill.
Kyrgios has grown close to the former World No. 1 over the years and was asked about the Serb’s allegations during a pre-tournament press conference ahead of the 2025 Australian Open. The temperamental Australian, who was one of the pillars of support for Djokovic during the Serb’s 2022 deportation saga, issued a brief and honest answer, saying:
“No, I haven’t spoken to him. I didn’t even know that. I’ll stand on… We treated him like s**t, that’s for sure. We wouldn’t have done that.”
24-time Major champion Novak Djokovic made the allegations in a recent interview with GQ. The Serb claimed that he underwent tests after his deportation from Australia in 2022, which revealed that he had lead and mercury in his body.
The current World No. 7 deduced that only the food he ate during his time in detention could have resulted in such a situation. Australian authorities are yet to issue a response to the Serb’s controversial claims.
“I realized that in that hotel in Melbourne I was fed with some food that poisoned me. I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anybody publicly, but discoveries that I was, I had a really high level of heavy metal. Heavy metal. I had the lead, very high level of lead and mercury,” Djokovic told GQ.
In the interview, the Serb also laid bare his experience in Melbourne after his visa was briefly reinstated before he was ultimately deported from Australia in 2022.
“I was followed by police everywhere I went” – Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic’s detention in a Melbourne hotel ended after the temporary reinstatement of his visa following the Serb’s victory in a court case. The 24-time Grand Slam winner recalled during his interview with GQ how there was round-the-clock police surveillance aimed at keeping tabs on him, even after the end of his detention.
“And then when I won the case, I was free. I mean free if you call this a freedom. Honestly, I was in a rented house and I was followed by police everywhere I went, and I had the helicopter hovering around the centre court where I was training. I was not allowed to access the locker room, main locker room. So they had to find an alternative locker room for me to change and take a shower and get me out of the site. So I was kind of like a fugitive there,” Djokovic said.
The Serb was also barred from participating in the 2022 US Open due to his opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine. He returned to Australia in 2023 and won a record-extending 10th Australian Open title. This year, the 37-year-old is set to kickstart his Australian Open campaign against American youngster Nishesh Basavareddy.
