{"id":43543,"date":"2023-01-27T15:44:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T15:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted"},"modified":"2023-01-27T17:35:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T17:35:40","slug":"djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted","title":{"rendered":"Djokovic says images of father with Russian flags ‘misinterpreted’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Novak Djokovic hit out on Friday at what he said was a “misinterpretation” of images showing his father posing at the Australian Open with a Russian flag that had Vladimir Putin’s face on it.<\/p>\n

The Serbian tennis star admitted that the controversy swirling around his father Srdjan had “got to me”, but maintained no harm was meant.<\/p>\n

Djokovic beat Tommy Paul to seal a place in Sunday’s final and said he hoped his father would be there after skipping Friday’s semi-final.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Djokovic stressed that his father had “no intention whatsoever to support any war initiatives”.<\/p>\n

“I saw as everyone else saw what happened and it was unfortunate the misinterpretation of what happened has escalated to such a high level,” Djokovic said after his semi-final.<\/p>\n

“It has got to me of course. I was not aware of it until last night. And then of course I was not pleased to see that.<\/p>\n

“My father, my whole family, have been through several wars. As my father put in the statement, we are against the war. We will never support any violence or war,” he added.<\/p>\n

He said his father had been greeting fans outside Rod Laver Arena after every match he played to thank them for their support.<\/p>\n

Djokovic senior had earlier said that he would not attend the semi-final, insisting in a statement that he “wishes only for peace”.<\/p>\n

“I am here to support my son only. I had no intention of causing such headlines or disruption,” Srdjan Djokovic said, after he faced calls to be banned from the tournament.<\/p>\n

Demand for apology<\/b><\/p>\n

A video posted to a pro-Russian Australian YouTube account on Thursday showed Djokovic’s father posing with a man holding a Russian flag with President Putin’s face on it.<\/p>\n

The video was captioned: “Novak Djokovic’s father makes bold political statement.”<\/p>\n

Another man was photographed by AFP inside the stadium during Djokovic’s match with a T-shirt bearing the Russian pro-war “Z” symbol.<\/p>\n

Srdjan Djokovic said he had been outside on Wednesday with his son’s fans “as I have done after all of my son’s matches to celebrate his wins and take pictures with them”.<\/p>\n

Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, had called for Srdjan Djokovic to be stripped of his accreditation.<\/p>\n

In an interview with AFP, Myroshnychenko also called on Djokovic to personally apologise and to clarify his stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“He should apologise for what has happened, and condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he demanded.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who lost in the women’s doubles semi-final, said the behaviour was hurtful, but was reluctant to comment on whether Djokovic’s father should be banned.<\/p>\n

“No matter what I say, I will be hated until the rest of my life, especially by very aggressive Novak fans,” she told reporters.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic was deported from Australia last year for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19 – the controversy overshadowing the start of the tournament.<\/p>\n

‘Absolutely disgusting’<\/b><\/p>\n

Myroshnychenko said the player’s response to the latest controversy would again draw attention away from what was happening on the court.<\/p>\n

“The last Open was all about Djokovic,” he said. “Now it’s all about Russian flags and Djokovic as well.”<\/p>\n

Ukrainian former player Alex Dolgopolov said on Twitter that open support for what he called a “genocidal regime” was “absolutely disgusting”.<\/p>\n

Myroshnychenko was instrumental in persuading Australian Open organisers to ban Russian and Belarusian flags from this year’s Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

Russia’s embassy in Australia had hit back at the ban, calling it “another example of unacceptable politicisation of sports”.<\/p>\n

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he didn’t “want to see any support given to the Russian invasion of Ukraine”.<\/p>\n

Tournament organiser Tennis Australia said on Thursday it would continue to work with security to enforce entry rules.<\/p>\n

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Russian and Belarusian players have normally competed under a neutral white flag as independents, as is the case at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Novak Djokovic hit out on Friday at what he said was a “misinterpretation” of images showing his father posing at the Australian Open with a Russian flag that had Vladimir Putin’s face on it. The Serbian tennis star admitted that the controversy swirling around his father Srdjan had “got to me”, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":43542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[274,315,4435,1909,275,1398],"class_list":["post-43543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-australian-open","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-south-africa-2","tag-tennis"],"yoast_head":"\nDjokovic says images of father with Russian flags 'misinterpreted' - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Novak Djokovic hit out on Friday at what he said was a "misinterpretation" of images showing his father posing at the Au ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Djokovic says images of father with Russian flags 'misinterpreted'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Novak Djokovic hit out on Friday at what he said was a "misinterpretation" of images showing his father posing at the Au ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-27T15:44:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-27T17:35:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1674821873.81.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"476\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Djokovic says images of father with Russian flags ‘misinterpreted’\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-27T15:44:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-27T17:35:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted\"},\"wordCount\":695,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/01\/postQueueImg_1674821873.81.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"australian open\",\"novak djokovic\",\"South-Africa\",\"tennis\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/djokovic-says-images-of-father-with-russian-flags-misinterpreted\",\"name\":\"Djokovic says images of father with Russian flags 'misinterpreted' - 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