Tiley said his own relationship with Djokovic was strong.

“Absolutely,” he said. “He can say what he wants to say, but he knows that I’ve moved on, and we’ve moved on as an organisation, and I believe he has, too.”

In the GQ interview, the 37-year-old said the decision to deport him had less to do with his vaccination status than the politics of allowing him to remain while parts of the country were in lockdown.

“It was so political. It had nothing really to do with vaccine or COVID or anything else. It’s just political. The politicians could not stand me being there. For them, I think, it was less damage to deport me than to keep me there,” he told the magazine.

“I’m not pro-vaccine. I’m not anti-vax. I am pro-freedom to choose what is right for you and your body. So when somebody takes away my right to choose what I should be taking for my body, I don’t think that’s correct.

“Because I don’t feel like I needed one. I just don’t feel like I needed one. I’m a healthy individual, I take care of my body, take care of my health needs, and I’m a professional athlete. And because I’m a professional athlete, I’m extremely mindful of what I consume, and I do regular tests, blood tests, any kind of tests. I know exactly what’s going on. So I didn’t feel a need to do that. Also, what is important to state is knowing that I’m not a threat to anybody. ’Cause I wasn’t, because I had antibodies.”

He also said: “I realised that in that hotel in Melbourne I was fed with some food that poisoned me.

“I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anybody publicly, but discoveries that I was, I had a really high level of heavy metal. Heavy metal. I had the lead, very high level of lead and mercury.”

Djokovic returned to Melbourne in 2023 to win his 10th Australian Open crown.

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At his pre-tournament press conference on Friday he refused to elaborate. “I’ve done that interview many months ago. I would appreciate not talking more in detail about that, as I would like to focus on the tennis and why I’m here.”

Djokovic, the seventh seed, plays American Nishesh Basavareddy in the first round on Monday night.

Watch all the Australian Open action live on Nine, 9Now and Stan from Sunday, January 12.

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