Last week, footage emerged that showed Djokovic’s father Srdjan congregating outside the Rod Laver Arena with pro-Russian demonstrators following his son’s quarter-final victory over Andrey Rublev. Srdjan appeared with a group who were parading the Russian flag as well as the banned military pro-war ‘Z’ symbol.
He later insisted he was inadvertently caught up in the protests and chose not to attend his son’s semi-final against Tommy Paul as he said: “I am here to support my son only. I had no intention of causing such headlines or disruption. I had no intention of being caught up in this. My family has lived through the horror of war, and we wish only for peace.”
Ahead of the final, Tennis Australia chief and tournament director Craig Tiley has refused to rule out a ban for Djokovic Snr. “I couldn’t give you a definitive answer now,” Tiley told News Corp. “We’re in a different situation, and [on Sunday] night, whether or not that has an impact on it or not. I think the decision not to be there on Friday night [for the semi-final] was on the fact that there was a lot of intensity around that action.
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Ahead of the weekend, Djokovic insisted that the “misrepresentation” of his father had been “unfortunate” and that he had been “misused” by Russian supporters.
And when asked whether a decision had been made on his father being back in his box for the showpiece event, the player said: “Let’s see. Of course it wasn’t, again, pleasant not to have him in the box. It’s a decision that we made together. Just didn’t know how things will play out, I guess. Yeah, I hope to have him [there for the final]. I hope he’s going to be feeling okay to be in the courts because I would like to have him there for the finals.”
