{"id":20613,"date":"2025-01-20T03:12:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T03:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=20613"},"modified":"2025-01-20T03:12:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T03:12:18","slug":"nine-host-tony-jones-addresses-novak-djokovic-boycott-with-tv-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=20613","title":{"rendered":"Nine host Tony Jones addresses Novak Djokovic boycott with TV apology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nine presenter Tony Jones has issued an apology to tennis legend\u00a0Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic boycotted an on-court interview\u00a0following his\u00a0Australian Open\u00a0win over Jiri Lehecka on Sunday night and later explained it was due to comments Jones had made during a 9News broadcast on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Jones addressed the issue on\u00a0<em>Today<\/em>\u00a0on Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well, one of disappointment that it&#8217;s come to this, I&#8217;ve got to say,&#8221; Jones said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-hzyFKJ igorOf\">\n<div class=\"OB-REACT-WRAPPER\">\n<div id=\"outbrain_widget_0\" class=\"OUTBRAIN\" data-src=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/sport\/tennis\/australian-open-2025-news-tony-jones-novak-djokovic-apology-serbian-fans-video-20250120-p5l5pb.html\" data-widget-id=\"AR_7\" data-external-id=\"a990585b4f2ae7cc79f869001cfd3abb\" data-ob-mark=\"true\" data-browser=\"chrome\" data-os=\"win32\" data-dynload=\"\" data-idx=\"0\">\n<div class=\"ob_box_cont CR_20\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;The comments were made on the news on the Friday night, which I considered to be banter. I considered it to be humour, which is consistent with most things I do.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"sc-gCpwsF iZebUR\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_620%2Cq_88%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_1240%2Cq_52%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1124px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_620%2Cq_88%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_1240%2Cq_52%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1024px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_696%2Cq_88%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_1392%2Cq_52%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_620%2Cq_88%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_382%2Cq_88%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_1%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.777778%2C$width_1396%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/c_scale%2Cw_764%2Cq_52%2Cf_auto\/a01659d78287e57c1ebbaf721a39745d0e6d4c67 2x\" alt=\"Tony Jones addresses the controversy surrounding Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open 2025.\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/picture><figcaption>\n<p class=\"sc-ixGGxD jVYTFW\">Tony Jones addresses the controversy surrounding Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open 2025.\u00a0<cite>Graphic: Tara Blancato<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Having said that, 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 and apology to them &#8211; 48 hours ago &#8211; for any disrespect that Novak felt, that I had caused.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As I stand here now I can only stand by that apology to Novak.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the Australian Open live\u00a0&amp;\u00a0free on the 9Network\u00a0&amp;<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<em><strong>9Now<\/strong><\/em><em><strong>.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<em><strong>Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<em><strong>is the only place to watch every match ad-free, live\u00a0&amp;\u00a0on demand with centre court in 4K.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I should also say the disrespect was extended, in many ways, to the Serbian fans. We have built up a nice rapport with the Serbian fans&#8230; there is banter, and I thought what I was doing was an extension of that banter. Quite clearly that has not been interpreted that way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I feel as though I&#8217;ve let down the Serbian fans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It has been an unfortunate situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watch the full Jones address in the video at the top of the page.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nine presenter Tony Jones has issued an apology to tennis legend\u00a0Novak Djokovic. Djokovic boycotted an on-court interview\u00a0following his\u00a0Australian Open\u00a0win over Jiri Lehecka on Sunday night and later&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20613","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>Nine host Tony Jones addresses Novak Djokovic boycott with TV apology - 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=20613\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nine host Tony Jones addresses Novak Djokovic boycott with TV apology - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nine presenter Tony Jones has issued an apology to tennis legend\u00a0Novak Djokovic. 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