sport news MIKE DICKSON: Djokovic back in the public relations mire again thanks to his ... trends now
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Who needs enemies when you have got friends and family like Novak Djokovic? Just when it seemed all distractions had been banished from his pursuit of a 10th Australian Open title, up pops his father Srdjan to pose with Russian nationalist sympathisers in front of a flag bearing Vladimir Putin's face.
Djokovic, who faces American outsider Tommy Paul in the second of Friday's semi-finals, has put behind him the deportation fiasco of last year. A three-week charm offensive with an Australian public had seen to that.
Sceptical talk of how injured he really was earlier in the tournament was also fading into the rearview mirror. Yet, thanks to his father's late-night celebrations with the extreme fringes of his Serbian fan base - so keen to display their kinship with Mother Russia - he is back in the public relations mire again.
Novak Djokovic's father Srdjan is seen in footage with a Russian flag at the Australian Open
He appeared in a video on YouTube posted by pro-Kremlin activist Simeon Boikov, who is the subject of an arrest warrant for the alleged assault of a 76-year-old Ukrainian during a recent rally for the country in Sydney.
It shows Srdjan posing alongside the flag and a sympathiser, who shouts 'Long Live Russia!' Djokovic Snr is shown being warmly greeted by his son's fans and, according to the YouTube translation, appeared to say something similar.
That led to calls from Ukraine's ambassador to Australia to ban Srdjan from attending the semi-final. 'It would be a
