Australian Open 2018: Novak Djokovic denies pushing for a boycott of next year's tournament over prize money

The former world No 1 attempted to play down talk of internal strife within the men’s game

The former world No 1 has attempted to play down talk of internal strife within the men’s game (Getty)

Novak Djokovic insisted here on Tuesday that he had not raised the subject of a future boycott of the Australian Open as the former world No 1 attempted to play down talk of internal strife within the men’s game and of battles with Grand Slam tournaments over prize money.

Djokovic’s speech to his fellow players at a meeting here last week has been a major subject of discussion ever since, but the Serb told reporters that “not much of what you have written is true”.

Reports had suggested that Djokovic had talked of the possibility of players breaking away from the Association of Tennis Professionals to form their own union and of the need to pressurise Grand Slam tournaments into increasing prize money. There were also reports of a possible boycott of next year’s Australian Open.

However, Djokovic insisted: “You’ve taken things out of context. I saw that you’ve portrayed me as someone who is very greedy, asks for more money and wants to boycott.”

Djokovic, who is president of the ATP’s Player Council, denied that he had raised the subject of an Australian Open boycott. “You're talking about union, you're talking about boycott, you're talking about radical decisions to make and move so we can get financial compensations the way we deserve it,” he said. “But there were no talks about that.”

He added: “We wanted to use this opportunity [at our meeting] to speak about certain subjects and see how everyone reacts to that and I guess see what opinions are. There were no decisions being made. There were no talks about a boycott or anything like that.”

Although most players here have been reluctant to discuss the issue, the question of whether the players should have an independent union has been a major subject of discussion throughout the sport. Andy Roddick said on Twitter that a players’ union had been “a good idea for a long time”, while Andy Murray’s mother, Judy, said she “totally agreed”.

Djokovic won his first competitive match since last summer (Getty)

Djokovic denied that there had been any discussions on gender equality in prize money – there have been reports that some men think they should be paid more than the women – while Judy Murray suggested: “What about an umbrella union that represents men and women? That would give the players a much stronger voice to challenge the Slams and the joint ATP/WTA events. Better together.”

Alexander Zverev, who had been said to be one of Djokovic’s main supporters, denied being a part of any group pushing for change. “I don't know where this all came from,” the German insisted.