Nick Kyrgios reacts after Novak Djokovic says he was 'poisoned' in Australian detention

Nick Kyrgios has gone in to bat for his friend Novak Djokovic after the Serbian legend claimed he was "poisoned" by the food given to him while in detention during his 2022 Australian Open visa debacle.

Kyrgios says the 24-time grand slam was "treated like shit" during the saga which left a sour taste in the mouth of Melbourne's 10-time champion.

Speaking to GQ in a wide-ranging interview ahead of this year's Melbourne campaign, Djokovic lifted the lid on how Australian officials dealt with the 24-time grand slam winner when he had his visa cancelled due to his unvaccinated status.

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Djokovic was sent to a hotel in Melbourne which housed asylum seekers and said it was only when he arrived back in Serbia that something seemed amiss.

"I had some health issues. And I realised that in that hotel in Melbourne I was fed with some food that poisoned me," Djokovic told GQ.

"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."

Kyrgios was asked about the comments during a pre-Australian Open press conference on Friday.

"I haven't spoken to him about that, I didn't even know about that," the Aussie said.

"But I'll say it, we treated him like shit. That's for sure.

"We shouldn't have done that."

Australia's Department of Home Affairs was contacted by the publication but declined to comment on the matter, citing privacy reasons.

The former world No.1 said he was put in a "kind of jail room".

"A lot of the athletes who were doing a quarantine for like 40 days before were also locked in the room," he said. "But the difference is that obviously they were not in kind of a jail room and I was."

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While he waited to learn his fate in detention, Djokovic said: "I had a paper with like a hundred items: from toothbrush, toothpaste, water, food, whatever. And I had to choose, tick the certain boxes, and each of these items carries a certain amount of points, and I had 60 points in total of what I was allowed to receive.

"So I did that 59 or 60 points, and I gave it to them. Twenty minutes later I come back and they say, we made a mistake, you don't have 60, you have 30. So I was like, you must be kidding me."

The Serbian tennis legend reflected upon the decision to evict him from the country, revealing he was made a scapegoat over his position on the COVID-19 vaccination.

"That's the actual reason why I was deported from Australia," he said.

"That's what the three federal judges said in the end. Their sentence is that they are not in a position to question the discretionary right of the [immigration] minister. It was so political.

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"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."

Earlier this week, Djokovic told the Herald Sun he still felt post-traumatic stress disorder when arriving in Australia to compete in the years after the incident in 2022.

He told GQ he does not hold a grudge against Australia or Australian people but his family still hold strong feelings over his treatment.

"For me, I'm fine. I never held any grudge over Australian people. In contrary, actually, a lot of Australian people that I meet, I met in Australia the last few years or elsewhere in the world, coming up to me and apologising to me for the treatment I received because they were embarrassed by their own government at that point," he said.

"And I think the government's changed and they reinstated my visa and I was very grateful for that. It's a new prime minister and new ministers, new people, so I don't hold any grudge for that. I actually love being there, and I think my results are a testament to my sensation of playing tennis and just being in that country."

Djokovic, now seed No.7 at the Australian Open, has been drawn to face Nishesh Basavareddy in the first round.

The tournament starts Sunday.