Novak Djokovic news: Serbian PM sends warning he could be sanctioned after rule breaks

Tennis News
Novak Djokovic looking on

The Serbian government has sent a strong warning to World No.1 Novak Djokovic, saying he could face sanctions if it’s true he attended a Belgrade Tennis Association event the day after testing positive.

On Wednesday Djokovic released a statement confirming he attended at least one event after being informed he tested positive for Covid-19 on December 16.

The 34-year-old confirmed he attended an interview with L’Equipe after being informed of his positive test, which needed to fall in the three weeks after his final match at the Davis Cup on December 3 to allow him to enter Australia for the first Grand Slam of the year with a medical exemption.

Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabic admitted that in Serbia the laws are equally applied to all and no-one is allowed to breach the isolation rules.

She said Djokovic would have clearly violated the rules in place if he was aware of the result before he participated in the event.

“In this case, it seems as if he was aware of it – then it is a clear violation of the rules and what the sanctions are, it’s what the relevant institutions will have to look into,” said Brnabić.

“We will have an insight into that information because I think that information is part of the investigation that is currently led by the immigration ministry of Australia.

“In the end, they made public a part of Novak’s medical documentation, which I am not even sure was fair on their part to make it public, because it is not fair to make anyone’s medical documentation public unless they had Novak’s explicit consent for that.”

In his post, Djokovic admitted to making an error of judgement by attending an interview with a French journalist while Covid positive.

Brnabic added: “At this time I don’t know when he obtained the results, when he exactly saw it and at what point in time he became aware of testing positive.

“I only know the date is 16 December, I really don’t know – it’s something Novak’s team should say.”

Ana Brnabic Novak Djokovic

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