Novak Djokovic owns a Danish biotech firm which believes it can develop a treatment – not a vaccination - for Covid-19.

The world's greatest tennis player was turfed out of Australia on the basis that his supposed anti-vaccination position could cause civil unrest, a decision made by a Government Minister and backed by a court ruling.

But the CEO of QuantBioRes Ivan Loncarevic has told the Financial Times that Djokovic was "not anti-vax".

Djokovic is the controlling shareholder of the firm, having bought an 80 per cent stake in 2020. It has about a dozen researchers in Denmark, Australia and Slovenia.

The unvaccinated world number one was barred from defending his Australian Open title after having his visa cancelled, and is in danger of being blocked from the French Open in May following a new Government ruling there.

His Danish company is developing a peptide to inhibit the coronavirus from infecting the human cell and wants clearance to conduct trials in Britain this year.

Djokovic has not commented.