‘Stitch up’: Secret, off-camera moment before Aussie Open scandal erupted

There has been a huge twist in the Australian Open’s Novak Djokovic problem with word about an off-camera moment leaking out.

The Australian Open’s Novak Djokovic storm has taken another violent twist with new details about Tony Jones’ outburst emerging.

The Channel 9 host made a public apology to the 24-time grand slam champion on Monday after his taunting of Serbian fans at Melbourne Park became an international incident.

In the eyes of many, the Footy Show host’s apology missed the mark.

Tennis Australia on Monday released a statement to confirm the Serbian champion had “acknowledged” Jones’ apology.

Jones conceded on Monday in an apology video first aired on Nine’s Today Show his comments “angered the Djokovic camp”.

However, the 63-year-old stands by his stance that his behaviour was what he called “banter” with the Serbian fans.

It’s now emerged Jones was not the one that started the scandal.

Australian tennis great Paul McNamee on Tuesday reported that the Serbian fans pictured behind Jones during his live TV cross had been asked by Channel 9 staff to begin chanting in front of the cameras to liven up the broadcast.

Those claims have been backed up by The Serbian Council of Australia.

Tony Jones performs in front of the Serbian fans. Photo: Channel 9.

It remains unclear if Jones and Channel 9 producers had always planned for the veteran broadcaster to send some words back at those fans standing behind him.

He said in his apology video that there had already been “banter” between himself and Serbian fans throughout the first week of the tournament.

Those fans at Melbourne Park and Serbians around the world clearly didn’t get the message.

“Context is important. On Friday, supporters of Djokovic, many with Serbian flags, were enjoying themselves in Garden Square at the Australian Open,” McNamee wrote in The Age.

“According to a number at that gathering, they were asked to begin chanting for their man for filming purposes.

“They duly complied, not knowing in the segment Jones would, in an attempt to be funny, begin his own chant: ‘Novak, he’s overrated, Novak’s a has-been, Novak, kick him out. I’m glad they can’t hear me’.

“The last bit was clearly the most offensive bit, given the history. It was a stitch up from a senior presenter for the host broadcaster that backfired badly, clearly offensive to (not only) Djokovic supporters.

“It opened a deep personal wound with the tournament’s greatest male champion.”

The history, of course, is that Djokovic was detained by Australian immigration officers and held in an immigration hotel after having his visa cancelled upon arrival in Melbourne ahead of the 2022 Australian Open — because he was not vaccinated against Covid.

He was then deported.

The 37-year-old said on the eve of this year’s tournament that he still feels “trauma” when entering Australia.

It is clear there are many layers to Djokovic’s anger.

Jones admitted it was his comment about “kicking” Djokovic out that caused the most damage.

“If I could turn back time... 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 that I made in that back and forth with the crowd, ‘Kick him out’,” Jones said.

“I can stand here and put whatever spin I want on that, but it can only be interpreted as a throwback to the Covid years when he was kicked out. That has angered Novak, which I completely understand now.”

He earlier said his comments to the crowd were what he considered to be “humour”.

“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,” Jones said.

Novak Djokovic left Jim Courier hanging. Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images.

“As such, I immediately contacted the Djokovic camp and issued an apology to them so this is 48 hours ago. But any disrespect that Novak felt that I caused and as I stand here now I standby that apology to Novak if he felt any disrespect, which clearly he does. I should also say the disrespect was extended, I guess in many ways, to the Serbian fans.

“And as you know being here for the last seven years, we have built up a nice rapport with the Serbian fans. They come here with the flags and they provide so much colour and so much passion – and there was banter.

“So I thought what I was doing was an extension of that banter. Quite clearly, that hasn’t been interpreted that way. So I do feel as though I have let down the Serbian fans. I’m not just saying this to wriggle out of trouble or anything like that. I genuinely feel for those fans.”

AFL shock jock Kane Cornes — a former colleague of Jones on the Footy Show — also said on Monday he suspected the crowd had been asked to perform in front of the camera.

“Firstly, as far as I know there would have been no malice in what he was saying,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.

“He was trying to be funny and it missed. And it missed badly.

“It’s live TV. Sometimes you set things up and I’m assuming Channel 9 and TJ himself would have set the crowd up for that chant because TV is all about the pictures and the colour and what it looks like so there’s no doubt there would have been a conversation with that section of the crowd.

“It was awkward. He’d be feeling it now. He’s a professional. He’s been doing this for a long time, so he wouldn’t be feeling great about this. He wouldn’t have expected it to blow up like it has.”

It has blown up into the biggest scandal of the entire tournament.

Tony Jones has apologised to Djokovic.

Djokovic’s actions were at least in part the result of his prideful hunger to protect everything about his country — where the comments have been received as a personal insult.

Serbia’s ambassador to Australia, Rade Stefanovic, expressed his “profound concern” to Nine on Monday.

In a statement the ambassador said: “The Embassy of the Republic of Serbia considers that Mr Jones’ comments are totally inappropriate and disrespectful”.

He went on to say: “There has never been in the history [sic] the case that [an] Australian athlete has been insulted and disrespected in such a way by the media or any public official in Serbia.”

The Serbian Council of Australia has also lodged an official complaint with the Human Rights Commission.

The Council has demanded Jones be stood down from all sports broadcasting duties at Channel Nine.

American tennis commentator Patrick McEnroe also said Djokovic would have felt a need to stand up for Serbian people.

“All I have to say is good for Novak for speaking up because that to me was just an idiotic statement,” McEnroe said on ESPN.

“It was an idiotic comment by Tony and Novak has every right to be annoyed.

“He could be president of Serbia. They’ve talked about that possibility happening and it just got even greater with the way he handled that. His pride for his people and his country.

“He’s literally an icon in his own country. As well he should be. So he had every right to make that stand and take the stand that he did.”

American tennis great Mary Joe Fernandez also said: “He wasn’t just defending himself. He was defending his nation.

“The remarks were done in such poor taste. He thought he was making a joke that was not funny at all.”

Djokovic returns to court on Tuesday night for the biggest blockbuster of the tournament so far — a quarter-final showdown with Carlos Alcaraz.

Originally published as ‘Stitch up’: Secret, off-camera moment before Aussie Open scandal erupted