Tennis star Novak Djokovic bested the competition at the 2023 U.S. Open this week, winning an incredible 24th Grand Slam title. The moment was years in the making. The Serbian tennis champ was barred from the United States for several years due to his refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19, forcing him to skip several high-profile tournaments.

In a new interview with John McEnroe for Omaha Productions’ McEnroe’s Places, Djokovic reflected on the years of controversy and pushed back against the idea that he is anti-vaccine.

“America is the place where I wasn’t able to travel for two years,” he began, referencing the 2021 and 2022 competitions he was unable to participate in due to his vaccination status.

“Being looked at and being treated as a villain of the world. I just wanted to compete and I wanted to play tennis, because that’s what I do best,” he said. “I was never anti-vax. I was always pro-freedom to choose. And that’s something that we took really for granted. I didn’t feel like a lot of people had a choice, really. And I was encountering that in a daily basis with so many people in my country or around the world.”

The interview is interspersed with footage of him being detained in Australia in early 2022 and eventually deported from the country when he tried to participate in the Australian Open. He stood by his comments to the BBC afterwards, saying he was willing to sacrifice his career for the issue.

“The only really big interview I’ve done with BBC when I was deported and came back from Australia,” he said. “When they asked me, ‘Are you willing to sacrifice eventually becoming the greatest ever and winning the most Grand Slams?’ I said, ‘Yeah if that’s the price I have to pay, then it doesn’t matter. I’m okay with that.’ ”

Djokovic has publicly resisted the compelled vaccinations required to enter many countries or participate in tournaments, and has made statements about being personally against vaccines in some cases. As a 2022 BBC report notes, he has not specifically promoted conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 vaccines, although his activism has made him a hero for many anti-vaccine advocates and he spent much of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic downplaying the impact of the virus.

You can watch his full comments below: