Asked whether the tennis authorities needed to get to the bottom of the issue, McEnroe said: “In short, yes. I’d like to know.“

Calling Djokovic “an extremely smart person,” McEnroe said it made no sense that if he tested positive, he would then conduct an interview in the following days.

Djokovic tested positive on the 16th and then attended an award ceremony the next day, and conducted an interview on December 18.

“That makes absolutely no sense to me,” McEnroe said. “The guy’s not stupid. He’s smart. So, already, I’m like, ‘What?’

“I mean, he wasn’t just sitting around going, ‘I hope I get COVID so I can get an exemption’.“

McEnroe, a commentator for Eurosport at the Australian Open, said Serbian authorities would not investigate the matter themselves amid anger in Djokovic’s homeland over his deportation, The Telegraph reported.

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On Friday (Saturday AEDT), several hundred people cheered outside the municipal building in the small Adriatic town of Budva as Djokovic arrived to receive a plaque declaring him an honorary citizen of the town.

Top local official Marko Carevic also presented Djokovic with an Orthodox Christian icon, expressing gratitude for helping “preserve the Serbian people and the Serbian church in Montenegro”.

Djokovic is adored in his native Serbia and among the Serbs in neighbouring Montenegro, a small nation of some 620,000 people. Since he returned home, Djokovic was seen visiting churches and attending liturgies in both Serbia and Montenegro.

A video posted on social networks showed a mask-less Djokovic taking communion from Serbian Patriarch Porfirije on an Orthodox Christian holiday, using the same spoon along with other faithful at a church in Belgrade.

Reuters

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