Novak Djokovic declines to address a past interview about getting sick in Australia in 2022

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic did not want to rehash — or even discuss at all, really — what he said Friday was a months-old interview with GQ magazine in which he recalled having high levels of metal in his blood from food he was served while detained before being deported from Australia in 2022.

“I would appreciate not talking more in detail about that, as I would like to focus on the tennis and why I’m here,” Djokovic said ahead of the Australian Open, which starts Sunday (Saturday EST).

“If you want to see what I’ve said and get more info on that, you can always revert to the article,” Djokovic said about the piece posted online this week.

Djokovic is working with Andy Murray as his coach in Australia in a bid to become the first player in tennis history with 25 Grand Slam singles titles.

In a lengthy GQ story that covered several topics, Djokovic spoke about what happened three years ago, when he was not vaccinated against COVID-19 and was kicked out of Australia.

“I had some health issues. And I realized that in that hotel in Melbourne, I was fed with some food that poisoned me,” he said. “I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anybody publicly, but ... I had a really high level of heavy metal. Heavy metal. I had ... very high level of lead and mercury.”

The 37-year-old Serbian did not directly answer at the end of Friday’s news conference when asked whether he had any evidence linking the blood levels he described to GQ to the food he ate in detention.