The presenter at the centre of the row involving Novak Djokovic once tried to kiss a female colleague on air, with the awkward clip resurfacing.
Djokovic, who progressed to the Australian Open semi-finals with a win over Carlos Alcaraz, refused to do an interview on the court on Sunday night after his win over Jiri Lehecka following remarks from Tom Jones, a presenter for official broadcaster Channel Nine, two days prior.
In a joke which backfired horribly, he pretended that that Serbian fans were chanting, "Novak, he’s overrated! Novak’s a has-been! Novak, kick him out!”.
Djokovic took issue, boycotting his on-court chat at Rod Laver Arena and being booed by fans in attendance for not staying for the traditional interview.
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He then explained his decision in his post-game press conference, saying: "The famous sports journalist who works for official broadcaster, Channel Nine here in Australia, made a mockery of Serbian fans and also made insulting and offensive comments towards me. And since then, he chose not to issue any public apology. Neither did Channel Nine. So since they’re official broadcasters, I chose not to give interviews for Channel Nine.”
The controversy even led to responses from Nick Kyrgios, Victoria Azarenka, Boris Becker, Elon Musk, Piers Morgan and even Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Jones provided an explanation and apology in an interview with a colleague of his on Channel Nine, stating:
“I considered it to be humour, which is consistent with most things I do.
"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 an apology to them. And as I stand here now, I stand by that apology to Novak … I do apologise if he felt that I disrespected him.”
Tennis Australia said that Djokovic had acknowledged the apology but the "banter and humour” from Jones has led to plenty of sorry statements over the years.
As highlighted by The Telegraph, he was accused of a "patronising" interview with Naomi Osaka after she beat 2019 Australian Open final.
But he also went in for a kiss when on air with a female colleague back in 2016.
Rebecca Judd, who had denied Jones' offer to "come over for a barbier" three years earlier, was heading onto maternity leave and in one of her last shifts in the studio, was subjected to an arm being put around her.
He then puckered up for a kiss but Judd reacted by turning away and laughed. In sarcastic fashion, Jones then said, “OK, good, this has gone well.”
The video of the awkward and cringeworthy has racked up one million views on YouTube.
Topics: Novak Djokovic
Josh Lawless