{"id":711956,"date":"2026-01-22T00:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/711956\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T00:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:53:12","slug":"novak-djokovic-storm-erupts-at-australian-open-as-controversy-sparked-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/711956\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic storm erupts at Australian Open as controversy sparked | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>However, Channel 9 commentator and Aussie tennis great Wally Masur has found himself in the midst of fury after a throwaway comment angered supporters during the first round triumph. The 1987 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/australian-open\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Australian Open<\/a> semi-finalist joked that the only way that the Spanish tennis player could stun the former world number one would be if the Serbian suffered an injury to himself. He said: \u201cI think that&#8217;s Pedro&#8217;s biggest chance if Novak just tears an adductor on one of those slides. It might be just what he needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nova TV, a media organisation from Serbia, were left stunned by the comments. They said: \u201cA shameful comment about Djokovic in a live feed. Is it possible that a commentator is saying this?\u201d While Mondo reported the incident as &#8220;a famous tennis player&#8217;s live feed scandal&#8221; and another outlet said the controversy was &#8220;catastrophic&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to a group of fans who had congregated by the broadcaster\u2019s tent, Jones said: &#8220;Novak is overrated, Novak&#8217;s a has-been, Novak kick him out&#8221;. But he was later forced to apologise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can stand by that apology to Novak,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I should also say the disrespect was extended, in many ways, to the Serbian fans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have built up a nice rapport with the Serbian fans, and there was 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. That has angered Novak which I completely understand now. It has been an unfortunate situation, it has been one of personal angst for Novak, it&#8217;s quite clearly personal angst for me as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Djokovic has yet to acknowledge the comment but will return to the Rod Laver Arena to take on 23-year-old Italian Francesco Maestrelli in the second round on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, Channel 9 commentator and Aussie tennis great Wally Masur has found himself in the midst of fury&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[4723,213234,4295,199982,6567,213235,213233,79,1068,16,15,213232],"class_list":{"0":"post-711956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-australian-open-round-2","10":"tag-novak-djokovic","11":"tag-novak-djokovic-australian-open","12":"tag-serbia","13":"tag-serbian-media-controversy","14":"tag-serbian-media-outrage","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tennis","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wally-masur"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115936021993974221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}