Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic admitted to an error on his travel documents for his trip to Australia.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, he said the documents were submitted by his support team and falsely claimed he did not travel internationally 14 days prior to his arrival in Australia. Djokovic also admitted to doing an interview with a journalist and a photo shoot immediately after testing positive for COVID-19 last December.
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“I felt obliged to go ahead and conduct the L’Equipe interview as I didn’t want to let the journalist down, but did ensure I socially distanced and wore a mask except when my photograph was being taken,” he said in the post. “While I went home after the interview to isolate for the required period, on reflection, this was an error of judgment and I accept that I should have rescheduled.”
Djokovic said he took a PCR test on Dec. 16. The following day, he tested negative on an antigen test and attended an event with children in Belgrade, Serbia. He said he did not know he tested positive on the PCR until after that event.
On Dec. 18, he did an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe despite knowing he tested positive. He said he canceled all other events that day except the interview.
The tennis player did not say where he traveled during the 14-day period before entering Australia, but a video published by the Daily Mail appeared to show him in Spain during that time frame.
Djokovic said the mistake was “human error and certainly not deliberate.” He said his team has given Australian officials information to clarify the mistake and that his agent “sincerely apologizes” for the error.
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An Australian court ordered him on Monday to be released from his temporary detention and to be allowed to play in the Australian Open on Jan. 17. Djokovic had been staying in an immigration detention facility while petitioning his visa denial. Australia had revoked his visa because he did not receive a vaccine against COVID-19, according to court documents.
Djokovic is a nine-time winner of the Australian Open. He is one win away from the most major wins in men’s tennis history.
