Novak Djokovic has apologised for flaunting Covid rules by attending an interview in December, which came to light amid his dramatic deportation from Australia.
Djokovic hit the headlines for the wrong reasons ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year at the Australian Open, after having his visa revoked twice before he was eventually deported from Melbourne.
During the fiasco over his vaccine status, which saw Australia's immigration minister Alex Hawke eventually cancel his visa following a second appeal hearing, it emerged that Djokovic had broken Covid restriction rules.
Djokovic - who is not vaccinated and could miss the French Open and Wimbledon - took part in an interview with L'Equipe on December 18 and carried out a photoshoot with the French paper.
However, this came after Djokovic took a Covid test on December 16, which came back positive - a result he found out on the afternoon of December 17.
And in a tell-all interview with the BBC News about the explosive fortnight that followed in Melbourne, Djokovic has apologised for his breaking of the rules to attend the L'Equipe interview.
When quizzed whether he knew he was positive, Djokovic said: "Yes and that was a poor error of judgement that I wish I can bring back the time and not have done it."
The world No 1 was then asked why he made the decision to still undergo the interview, which led to him apologising on the matter.
"[I did it] for several reasons," he continued. "First, because I respect L'Equipe as one of the best sports papers in the world. Franck [Ramella], the journalist, is somebody I have known for many, many years and always had a great relationship with him.
"We had already organised that meeting for quite some time and I didn't want to let him down. Should I have been more cautious? Should I have advised him? Absolutely.
"I wish I could take it back, it was my mistake, I own it and I stand behind it and I'm really sorry for that."
Furthermore, while waiting for the results from his PCR test to come back, Djokovic attended an awards ceremony for young tennis stars in Belgrade.
But Djokovic did not know at this time that he had contracted the virus.
However, he was quizzed on this too and admitted it was 'deeply irresponsible' for him to have turned up at the awards ceremony while waiting to know if he had Covid.
"I would say that I understand, I really do", Djokovic said. "I wanted to be there for the children. I know how much it means to them, for me to give them an award and they worked hard for that. That's all I can say really.
"I saw my PCR positive test only a few hours after that. I did not see the PCR test before that. If I had seen it I wouldn't [have attended] of course. But I understand why people are angry because when they see something like that it doesn't make them feel comfortable."
