{"id":20368,"date":"2025-01-19T02:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T02:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=20368"},"modified":"2025-01-19T02:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T02:39:11","slug":"channel-9-newsreader-apologises-for-novak-djokovic-jibe-at-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=20368","title":{"rendered":"Channel 9 Newsreader Apologises For Novak Djokovic Jibe At Australian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A well-known Australian broadcaster has insisted his recent remarks about Novak Djokovic have been \u2018misinterpreted\u2019 and has apologized for any offense caused.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tony Jones, who is covering the Australian Open for Channel 9 News, landed himself in hot water earlier this week after he made a series of remarks about the 24-time Grand Slam champion whilst presenting a TV segment. In the background, there was a group of Serbian fans chanting and waving their country\u2019s flag which prompted Jones to speak about Djokovic. Shortly afterwards, he received backlash on social media with some accusing him of disrespecting the tennis star.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWelcome back to Melbourne Park where you can see the Novak Djokovic fans in full voice \u2026 the chants are quite extraordinary,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Jones said.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cNovak is overrated \u2026 Novak\u2019s a has-been \u2026 Novak kick him out,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>he then sang back to the fans before adding,<em>\u00a0\u201cI am glad that they can\u2019t hear me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jones continued his segment and ended it with a joke by saying\u00a0<em>\u2018I am going to have to get out of here \u2026 nah we are fine, we had selfies and I told them I was Clint Stanaway.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><a class=\"vglnk\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AussieVal10\/status\/1880205598450675840\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/AussieVal10\/status\/1880205598450675840<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>It has been claimed that the network asked fans to chant before Jones made his controversial remarks. However, Ubitennis hasn\u2019t been able to verify this. Among those to react was former world No.1 doubles player Paul McNamee who said he was \u2018surprised\u2019 by the antics.<\/p>\n<p>Following the backlash, 63-year-old Jones has broken his silence on the matter after being\u00a0contacted by Serbian website Sport Klub.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cUnfortunately, my \u2018humor\u2019 the other night was misinterpreted as an attack on Novak. That was certainly not the case. I\u2019ve been joking with Serbian fans throughout the tournament and this is \u2013 at least I thought so \u2013 a continuation of that,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he told Sport Klub.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf you watch our morning show, you\u2019ll get an idea of \u200b\u200bhow we work. At no point did I mean to show any disrespect to Novak and I apologize \u2013 there was certainly no intention to offend him.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Djokovic is through to the fourth round of the Australian Open where he is bidding to win the title for a record 11th time. On Sunday he will play the Czech Republic\u2019s Jiri Lehecka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A well-known Australian broadcaster has insisted his recent remarks about Novak Djokovic have been \u2018misinterpreted\u2019 and has apologized for any offense caused.\u00a0 Tony Jones, who is covering&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Channel 9 Newsreader Apologises For Novak Djokovic Jibe At Australian Open - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=20368\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Channel 9 Newsreader Apologises For Novak Djokovic Jibe At Australian Open - 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