Australian Open Chief Tells Djokovic Family: 'Be Really Careful'

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 21, 2023 Serbia's Novak Djokovic shakes hands with Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov after winning his third round match REUTERS/Loren Elliott
Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 21, 2023 Serbia's Novak Djokovic shakes hands with Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov after winning his third round match REUTERS/Loren Elliott
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Australian Open Chief Tells Djokovic Family: 'Be Really Careful'

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 21, 2023 Serbia's Novak Djokovic shakes hands with Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov after winning his third round match REUTERS/Loren Elliott
Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 21, 2023 Serbia's Novak Djokovic shakes hands with Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov after winning his third round match REUTERS/Loren Elliott

Australian Open chief Craig Tiley on Saturday advised Novak Djokovic's family to be "really careful" of people using the tournament's global exposure as a platform for "disruptive" purposes.

It follows a video posted on a pro-Russian YouTube account showing Djokovic's father Srdjan posing in Melbourne Park with a fan holding a Russian flag that featured the face of Vladimir Putin.

It sparked a backlash from Ukraine and led to calls for Djokovic senior to be banned from the tournament.

He decided to skip his son's semi-final victory on Friday and it remains to be seen if he will be at Sunday's final.

Tiley told the Melbourne Age newspaper he had spent "a fair amount of time talking to the Djokovic family,” AFP reported.

"My advice is that you have to be really careful because if this is an event of global significance, it's a platform," he said he told them.

"When you have hundreds of thousands of people come through the gate, you're going to naturally have some people that are coming here with an intention to be disruptive, and don't get yourself caught in the middle of that.

"And they completely understand that," he added. "The family were very good. They were upset that it was taken that way. There was no intention of it.

"His dad particularly does not support war and they're very focused on supporting peace."

Serbian star Djokovic insisted after his semi-final win there had been a "misinterpretation" of the images and his father had "no intention whatsoever to support any war initiatives".

He said his father had been greeting fans outside Rod Laver Arena after every match and had been "misused" on Wednesday night.

Tiley said the Open had more than 1,000 accredited journalists and growing TV audiences and "it does become a platform and that's new for us. It never used to be like that".

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.

Spectators have been banned from having Russian or Belarusian flags at the Grand Slam after Ukraine's ambassador to Australia and New Zealand demanded action when they were seen among the crowd early in the tournament.



South Korea Expresses Regret after Its Athletes Introduced as North Korea at Opening Ceremony

 Athletes of South Korea travel by boat along the Seine river during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP)
Athletes of South Korea travel by boat along the Seine river during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP)
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South Korea Expresses Regret after Its Athletes Introduced as North Korea at Opening Ceremony

 Athletes of South Korea travel by boat along the Seine river during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP)
Athletes of South Korea travel by boat along the Seine river during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP)

South Korea expressed regret that its delegation of athletes at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday was introduced as from rival North Korea and has demanded assurances from organizers the mistake will not happen again.

As the boat carrying South Korean athletes passed on the Seine, the announcer introduced them as the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" - the official name of North Korea - in French and English.

The announcer used the same introduction when the North Korean delegation passed.

South Korea's vice minister for sports and culture, Jang Mi-ran, who was in Paris, had requested a meeting with International Olympics Committee President Thomas Bach, the ministry said in a statement.

"We express regret that the country was introduced as North Korea at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games when the athletes of the Republic of Korea were entering," it said.

South Korea's National Olympic Committee immediately referred the incident to the Games' organizers and requested that the error will not be repeated.

South Korea's delegation includes 143 athletes competing in 21 events. North Korea, which is returning to the Games for the first time since Rio 2016, has sent 16 athletes.