Jim Courier is sharing how he felt about the Novak Djokovic on-court interview drama as the American revealed that the Serb looked at him as if he should have known that there wasn’t going to be an interview.
In the Australian Open round-of-16, the tournament’s record 10-time champion saw off Jiri Lehecka 6-3 6-4 7-6 (4) to set up a showdown versus Carlos Alcaraz.
But then – instead of giving a short reflection on his win and possibly answering some other questions – the 37-year-old only delivered a quick message to the crowd and that was it.
“Thank you very much for being here tonight, I appreciate your presence and support. See you next round. Thank you very much,” Djokovic said.
Jim Courier and Novak Djokovic© X screenshot
In his press conference, the Serb blamed Channel 9 Tony Jones – who referred to him as “overrated” and “a has-been” a couple of days earlier – for his boycott of Channel 9.
Courier: Djokovic looked me as if he wondering, ‘Why are you out here?’
“I certainly didn’t expect Novak to look at me with a quizzical look like, ‘Why are you out here?’” the former four-time Grand Slam champion said on Tennis Channel.
“I think he thought that we should have known that he wasn’t going to do that. I had no inside information. There was no problem on the court, but once he said he didn’t want to do the interview, that’s fine.”
In the same interview, Courier clarified that he is “not representing Channel 9 but Tennis Australia.”
But since he was holding a Channel 9 microphone, Djokovic naturally thought he was one of their employees.
Meanwhile, Jones has since apologized to the record 24-time Grand Slam champion and his apology has been accepted.
So if the current world No. 7 beats Alcaraz in his next match, expect him to give an on-court interview.
Tennis World USA