A French journalist, who interviewed Novak Djokovic in Belgrade last month, said that he was asked to not ask the world no 1 about his COVID-19 vaccination status. The Serb is in Australia and is eyeing to defend his Grand Slam title. He was held in immigration detention in Melbourne for several days and questioned about his medical exemption for a requirement to be vaccinated for COVID-19. Djokovic allegedly failed to report his recent travel history. However, a court ruled his immediate release and rejected his visa cancellation. 

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Djokovic has admitted that he is not vaccinated. In a court hearing his lawyers also admitted that the 20-time Grand Slam champion had COVID-19 when he attended a newspaper interview and photo shoot in Serbia last month. The player said that he made an “error of judgment” and should have immediately gone into isolation.

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However, the journalist admitted that he was not aware of Djokovic being COVID positive during the interview. 

L’Equipe sports daily’s Franck Ramella interviewed Djokovic on December 18, two days after the date the Serb has stated he tested positive for the coronavirus. 

“The instructions were clear — no questions about vaccination. So we didn’t ask him if he had made efforts to get tested. If we had asked him, what would have been the point?” Ramella wrote.

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The Frenchman further added that the photographer had asked Djokovic to remove his mask for five minutes during the interview, but he refused. The player did later pose without a mask for a photo.

“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,” Djokovic said.

“On reflection, this was an error of judgement and I accept that I should have rescheduled this commitment.”

Ramella said that he found out about the COVID positive test three weeks after the interview.