WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Novak Djokovic says he refuses to commemorate "woke" Pride Month.
OUR VERDICT
False. The fabricated "news" story is engagement bait.
AAP FACTCHECK - As tennis stars line up at Wimbledon, Facebook pages are returning serve with fake stories galore in an attempt to garner clicks and revenue.
Pages called "The Tennis Pro", "Tennis Talk" and "Tennis Pulse" are publishing images generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and numerous false or distorted stories about tennis stars such as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
The pages typically feature a mix of eye-catching pictures, "heartbreaking" tales and divisive culture war issues to try and grab traffic.
A post by The Tennis Pro is captioned: "BREAKING: Novak Djokovic announces he will refuse to commemorate Pride Month in June - claims that 'WOKE' does not deserve to be celebrated."
The false post has had more than 25,000 likes and reactions on Facebook.
Nearly identical fake posts about Pride Month can be found about celebrities including Dolly Parton, Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen and singer Carrie Underwood.
An article the post links to - with the contradictory subject heading "football" - claims Djokovic made the announcement at a press conference.
There is no reputable media coverage suggesting Djokovic has said this, and Google searches only turn up similar false viral social media posts.
On the contrary, at a 2018 press conference (timestamp six minutes 30 seconds) Djokovic said: "You know it's everybody's right to have sexual orientation as they desire, any kind of direction in life they desire. I respect it. I don't see people differently if they come out like that."
The pages also put up many other questionable stories with few details, aimed to whipping up emotional reactions.
A post on Tennis Pulse reads: "Twenty years ago Roger Federer saved two abandoned twin girls twenty years later they return and do something that moves the entire tennis world."
The article to which the post links spins a story about Federer rescuing the babies in Africa, but its images - supposedly showing the girls in the story - have watermarks indicating they were generated by AI chatbot Grok.
One post from The Tennis Pro, captioned "A Gesture That Changes Everything", tells a story about a boy returning Djokovic's lost wallet.
The post clearly features AI-generated images - the background of one showing the same people's faces appearing in a crowd several times.
A similar false post uses AI images to make a claim about Federer saving an abandoned boy 15 years ago, while another claims to show Djokovic giving a pregnant woman a gift at a gas station.
A claim that tennis star Coco Gauff has been secretly married for years includes photos of her and her "husband" clearly generated by AI, with Gauff's eyes mismatched and the teeth appearing abnormal in both people.
There has been no announcement of Gauff's marriage. The 21-year-old told People magazine she has been dating her boyfriend, whose name she hasn't revealed, since 2023.
On June 23, 2025, Tennis Pulse ran nearly identical stories, just a few hours apart, claiming Djokovic and Nadal had somehow both donated dining halls designed for 1200 students at orphanages in their respective home towns.
Tennis Pro also falsely reported that Djokovic apparently "shocked the world" by funding surgery to separate conjoined twins, in a post with AI-generated images.
The exact same non-existent twins also had their emergency surgery funded by basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, rock legends Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen, US President Donald Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and Dolly Parton.
These latest images make up a growing trend of pages full of AI "slop" trying to hype up follower counts and make money by harvesting clicks.
Dan Halpin, CEO of Sydney-based cyber investigations firm Cybertrace, recently told AAP FactCheck that similar pages featuring fake stories about the British royal family were likely just attempts to build up influence on Facebook.
"I suspect they're starting a new account and need to meet the qualifying requirements of Facebook for advertising," he said.
The pages tend to initially post sensational or viral content for views, followers or page likes.
"It's basically spam and many users don't check or care if it's true or not," Mr Halpin said.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
