Djokovic's father skips Australian Open semi-final after Russian flag controversy

MELBOURNE: Tennis ace Novak Djokovic's father said he will stay away from his son's Australian Open semi-final on Friday (Jan 27), insisting that he "wishes only for peace" after being filmed with fans holding Russian flags.

"I am here to support my son only. I had no intention of causing such headlines or disruption," Srdjan Djokovic said in a statement after the images led to calls for him to be banned from the tournament.

"My family has lived through the horror of war and we wish only for peace," he said.

Srdjan Djokovic made no mention of whether he would attend the Grand Slam final on Sunday if his son won Friday's match.

A video posted to a pro-Russian Australian YouTube account on Thursday showed Djokovic's father posing with a man holding a Russian flag with Vladimir Putin's face on it.

The video was captioned: "Novak Djokovic's father makes bold political statement."

Serbian tennis reporters confirmed it was Djokovic's father and the Melbourne Age newspaper reported that he said in Serbian: "Long live Russia."

Another man was photographed by AFP inside the stadium during Djokovic's match with a T-shirt bearing the Russian pro-war "Z" symbol.

Srdjan Djokovic said that he was outside with his son's fans "as I have done after all of my son's matches to celebrate his wins and take pictures with them".

"I had no intention of being caught up in this."

The tennis great's father said that he had decided to watch on television to avoid "disruption" for his son or his semi-finals opponent, American Tommy Paul.

"I wish for a great match and I will be cheering for my son, as always," he said.

Ukraine's ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, had called for Srdjan Djokovic to be stripped of his accreditation.

In an interview with