"You portrayed me as someone who is very greedy"- When Novak Djokovic slammed media over false rumors of his calls for player union at Australian Open

Novak Djokovic has locked horns with the media on several occasions over the course of his career, no surprise considering his outspoken approach to life. The Serb, however, has also become the victim of false rumors every now and then.

One such incident happened at the Australian Open in 2016, when he was accused of fixing a match played all the way back in 2007 at the Paris Masters. At the time, the 24-time Grand Slam champion quickly dismissed the allegations, asking for proof -- which never surfaced.

Two years later, the former World No. 1 became the subject of another drama at the Melbourne Major. This time, Djokovic was accused of calling for the players to form a union, with demands for more prize money. In fact, it was reported in the media that he even brought along a lawyer with him to the meeting.

However, in his press conference in Melbourne, the Serb maintained that was not the case at all, slamming the press for portraying him as a 'greedy' person out for more money at the end of the day.

While Djokovic admitted that he and other players got together to discuss certain topics, he did not reveal what they explicitly spoke about, only stating that it was not with the idea of forming a union.

"Well, I saw that some of you have written a story that has been a little bit exaggerated. You've taken things out of the context. I saw that you've portrayed me as someone who is very greedy, asks for more money and wants to boycott," Djokovic said.

"But I respect your, you know, freedom and decisions to do that. But not much of what you have wrote is true. What happened is that we, players, just wanted to have us players talk about certain topics. I don't think there is anything unhealthy about that," he added.

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Novak Djokovic on what players discussed in the meeting at the 2018 Australian Open: "Subjects that we never get a chance to talk about"

2025 Australian Open - Day 8 - Source: Getty

Reiterating once again that he and other players never discussed unionizing, Novak Djokovic disclosed that what they actually talked about were general topics they never got the opportunity to share their feelings on usually. The Serb went on to add that it would be nice to have such meetings more often in the future, aimed at improving unity in the ATP Tour.

"There was no talks about that. Again, I'm saying it was subjects that we never get a chance to talk about in such a large group. That's all it was," Djokovic said.

"In the future we might have more of these kind of, you know, get-togethers just to see where we are. You never get to hear what majority of the players really thinks between the players. So that was the whole purpose of us getting together," he added.

A year after this, in 2019, Djokovic founded the PTPA (Professional Tennis Players Association) along with Vasek Pospisil, a group that represents player interests in both the ATP and WTA Tour.