{"id":24503,"date":"2023-01-27T07:37:38","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T07:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/2023\/01\/27\/novak-djokovics-father-to-watch-australian-open-semi-final-from-home\/"},"modified":"2023-01-27T07:37:38","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T07:37:38","slug":"novak-djokovics-father-to-watch-australian-open-semi-final-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/?p=24503","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic’s father to watch Australian Open semi-final from home"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Novak<\/span><\/span>
Srdjan Djokovic (left of the centre three) was filmed with supporters of Russia president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<\/thead>\n\n\n\n
Venue: <\/strong>Melbourne Park <\/span>Dates:<\/strong>16-29 January<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coverage:<\/strong> Commentary every day from 07:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra ‘Tennis Breakfast’ live from Melbourne, with selected live text commentaries and match reports on the BBC Sport website & app<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Srjdan Djokovic will watch his son Novak’s Australian Open semi-final from home to avoid causing “disruption” after being pictured with supporters of Russian president Vladimir Putin.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The 62-year-old <\/span>was photographed<\/span><\/a> with a man holding a Russian flag with Putin’s face on it after his son’s win over Russian Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nine-time champion Novak faces American Tommy Paul in Melbourne on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I am here to support my son only,” Srdjan said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The images of Srdjan also featured a man wearing a T-shirt printed with the pro-war Z symbol following Djokovic’s quarter-final victory. <\/span><\/p>\n

Russian and Belarusian flags and symbols have been banned at Melbourne Park since a Russian flag was displayed during a match between Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindl and Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova on the opening day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Srdjan said: “I was outside with Novak’s fans as I have done after all of my son’s matches to celebrate his wins and take pictures with them. I had no intention of being caught up in this.<\/span><\/p>\n

“My family has lived through the horror of war, and we wish only for peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

“So there is no disruption to [the] semi-final for my son or for the other player, I have chosen to watch from home. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I wish for a great match and I will be cheering for my son, as always.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Tennis Australia has responded to the controversy and said it “stands with the call for peace and an end to war and violent conflict in Ukraine”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The statement added: “After the events of Wednesday night, we acted swiftly to work with police and our security teams to have the instigators of the protest removed from the venue. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Throughout the event we’ve spoken with players and their teams about the importance of not engaging in any activity that causes distress or disruption. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Mr Srdjan Djokovic has issued a statement confirming that he will not attend tonight’s semi-final. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We will continue to strive for the safety of fans at the event and reiterate our position banning flags from Belarus and Russia.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[ad_1] Srdjan Djokovic (left of the centre three) was filmed with supporters of Russia president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday night Venue: Melbourne Park Dates:16-29 January Coverage: Commentary every day from … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}