"Shut up, get out of here" - Andy Roddick makes his position clear with strongly-worded criticism in light of Novak Djokovic's rift with Tony Jones

Andy Roddick has come to Novak Djokovic’s defense and slammed Channel 9 journalist Tony Jones for his remarks against the Serb and his fans at the ongoing Australian Open 2025. Jones, who represents the host broadcaster Channel 9, stirred up a storm when he referred to Djokovic as a “has been” while recording a segment this week.

He also took a dig at the Serbian fans gathered there, saying:

"Back to Melbourne Park, where you can see the Novak Djokovic fans there in full voice. The chants are quite extraordinary. Novak, he's overrated! Novak's a has-been! Novak, kick him out! Boy, I'm glad they can't hear me."

The comments did not go well with Novak Djokovic, who declined to do the on-court interview with Jim Courier and later explained that he would continue to avoid doing so until Channel 9 and Jones issued an apology.

Reacting to the development, former World No. 1 Roddick sided with Djokovic and slammed Jones for his unsavory remarks.

“It feels like he was wrong by the way, in the Novak thing, getting into the Serbian fans and saying…you say the greatest of all the time and you have a crowd and you're going ‘who’s a has-been?’ Shut up. You can't call someone a ‘has been’ when you're crusty too. Get out of here.” said Roddick while speaking on his podcast Served With Andy Roddick (15:00 onwards).

Roddick felt Jones had no grounds to call Novak Djokovic, who has won 24 Grand Slams and a record 10 Australian Open titles, a “has been”.

“Listen, we can disagree with people but you have to have a base setting of respect for someone who's accomplished as much as Novak has to troll and to call someone a ‘has been’, that's absurd. The guy’s in the quarters playing great, just routed two really good young players and he's won 10 times,” he added.

Novak Djokovic will be in action in the men’s quarterfinal on Tuesday, January 21, when he faces a familiar foe and title-favourite in Carlos Alcaraz.

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Novak Djokovic stopped out of respect for Jim Courier, says Andy Roddick

Djokovic came in for criticism for not doing the on-court interview with Courier. The Serb thanked the crowd for supporting him but did not chat with Courier.

Roddick feels it's a player’s choice to decide if they want to do the on-court interview.

“You can say, well he should have stood there (and spoken to Courier). I mean, he doesn't have to. Every player going off the court agrees to do that in the moment. It is a weird situation for Courier, but he’s the most grown-up person in the room, he can roll with it. He probably doesn't care too much. If anything, it's going to make that next interaction even more…it's going to be good. I think the only reason he stopped is out of respect for Jim Courier. So he wasn't just chasing him,” he said.

Courier commented on the developments and said the incident could work in Djokovic’s favor as it would fire him up as he bids for a record 11th Australian Open title. Channel 9 and Jones subsequently issued an apology.