Novak Djokovic Makes Statement About US Open Default On Social Media

Djokovic has risked this before with smacking balls from time to time, but this one is as much on the old, oblivious line judge who had no business being on court as it is on Novak.
He clearly didn’t aim for her, and he hit that thing at like 5%. If a person is that a) inattentive, or b) athletically incapable, they have no business helping officiate an Open.
And I think it will be provable that the woman, to cover her embarrassment for lack of awareness, did a major flopping event on a ball tapped at her and hitting the side of her neck, not throat – Video analysis of velocity and you know it is coming – will show it had the force of an underhand toss of a ball to a dog playing catch 10 meters away.
Djokovic of course can’t question the woman’s lack of qualification to be out there, or her flopping act that escalated it to an “injury” vs. a “no nevermind I’m fine” a DQ vs a 2nd code violation costing him a game (and set) – but OTHERS WILL be digging up the truth.

September 6th, 2020 at 10:09 pm

Blaming the victim? Really?

September 6th, 2020 at 10:26 pm

Novak is a professional athlete with top notch professional skills, currently #1 in the world of tennis. He absolutely knew it was a mental mistake. A 5% hit from his ability is still Much more-potentially devastating if hit at the right spot. And that is the fact of what happened. It was obvious on video she was having a hard time breathing and was suffering.
Trying to throw this innocent woman under the bus saying she was anyway at fault further shows Djokers fanatics ignorance. Was she suppose to be watching out for a angry flailing ball smacked her way?
Rear the rules. This was indefensible.

September 6th, 2020 at 10:45 pm

Any player or official on a field of play must at all times be protecting themselves, their own safey 1st, or they have no business being out there. That is drilled and drilled and drilled into you in many sports, and not just athletes but officials and fans that they can get hurt from not watching the ball!
And if hurt, especially through their own negligence or lack of a modicum of athletic ability and reflexes – not to flop for sympathy to escape people thinking you messed up.
From what I saw, she stood there oblivious to anything around her, not avoiding the ball, then took what I normally see as a “no nevermind” hit on the side of her neck, not throat.
Then went down like she took a crossbow bolt through the neck.
To me, she’s a flopper, and flopping is one of those things I can’t stand in any sport. I had my fill of whining Italian World Cup floppers.
My other more charitable theory is she was standing there with a mouthful of spit and inhaled it when the ball smacked her in total surprise.
And went down choking on her own aspirated in spit.

September 6th, 2020 at 11:16 pm

Ha ha ha ha. I simply can’t stop laughing. I agree with skeezer here. This was in excusable. Next time Djokovic will think twice before being this careless. Btw fanboism can make you blind as chrisford1’s comment shows

September 6th, 2020 at 11:30 pm

I guess my anti-Djokovic ness got the better of me. After seen the incident and reason some other comments of chrisford1 I realise I made a huge error in judgement.
@chrisford1 I am sorry I jumped to a wrong conclusion without fully understanding the context

As for Djokovic I kinda feel bad

September 6th, 2020 at 11:46 pm

And that lady was competing for the best acting performance in a sporting event. What a disgrace

September 6th, 2020 at 11:48 pm

CF1, you are not wrong, the way she dropped it looked like she was hit by cricket ball coming of Sachin Tendulkar‘s cricket bat, rather than tennis ball moving at a slow pace, but Nole didn’t give much choice to officials but to default him, unfortunately.
It is what it is, on to Rome, extra week of clay court practice, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise 😉

September 6th, 2020 at 11:59 pm

Glad to know faker is gone.

September 7th, 2020 at 12:05 am

Flopping? Oh sure she yeah she planned the whole ordeal lol. Just trying to blame anyone but the person who hit a ball in anger not knowing where it is going? Opposite of a so called flop. That is why he was busted, that is why they have rules for that. He knows that, the players know that. He does not matter how she acted about her injury, she got hit. Other umps and ball boys are back there all the time. Shopolov did the same thing in anger, hit a ump and broke his eye socket by accident. DQ’ed. What did he do? Not go home and in his privacy write on his phone and apologize. He went to the press meeting right after and apologized. Kudos to him taking responsibility publicly.

September 7th, 2020 at 12:17 am

Chrisford1: ” but this one was on the old oblivious line judge who had no business being on court”
Are you f****** kidding me???? What kind of a stupid numbskull idiotic remark is that? Clearly you have never played tennis. Because if you did, you would have felt the pounding on your body from someone smashing a shot against you. And the bruises from a week later. An imbecilic remark from an imbecilic Nole fan.

September 7th, 2020 at 12:33 am

@Tenisbebe: +1. It’s simply an unbelievable comment from @Chrisford1.

Suggestion to the site admin: @Chrisford1 should be excluded from tennis-x for the rest of the US Open – like Djokovic is.

September 7th, 2020 at 1:28 am

He just turned to give the ball to the ball child but hit it before making the full rotation and the ball hit the lines woman. It was a poorly executed move and that’s it. If he had hit by frustration and hate, I think the lines woman wouldn’t have gotten up.

I totally agree with CF1: Lines persons, ball children should be able to have faster reactions.

Now on to the French: the good news is, Nole has more time to prepare himself for the clay.

Winning the French would be huge :)

September 7th, 2020 at 2:18 am

@ John Smith. Agreed. If you’re going to be so incredibly biased over an obviously well-founded ruling, perhaps you should crawl under a rock for a while.

September 7th, 2020 at 2:22 am

Van Persie: Of course!! I remember you. One of the most biased Nole fans on this blog. The man completely screwed up. An incredible gifted tennis player and the number one player in the world but he f***** up. Get over it! The completely proper determination of this calamity was had.

September 7th, 2020 at 2:36 am

Van Persie says

Winning the French would be huge :)

Rafa Nadal says hi! 😂😂

September 7th, 2020 at 3:44 am

Regarding Nole’s disqualification: it was the right decision, now that I am analysing this better. A rule is a rule, it has to be respected and Nole has to be more careful. Given the lines woman reaction on court, you would have expect that she could sue the USTA perhaps, had Nole continued to play.

On the other hand:Given the woman’s reaction, one has to wonder: no doctor came on court to check on her….Why?

And I am sticking to the opinion that Lines persons have to be hired more carefully.

“Suggestion to the site admin: @Chrisford1 should be excluded from tennis-x for the rest of the US Open – like Djokovic is.”

Haha, this will not erase the lost matches of your fave when playing Nole, just saying ;)

September 7th, 2020 at 3:59 am

Chrisford- you sound like a real jerk. She shouldn’t have been standing there I guess. The play was over and Djokovich had his back turned facing away from here as he hit the ball which hit her throat knocking the wind out. Is she supposed to constantly stare at him? Then again, come to think of it, she should have been aware given Djokovich’s volatility. Just a few plays before the incident, he wacked the ball hard towards the sidelines and the commentators said he could of easily hit camera people.

September 7th, 2020 at 4:33 am

https://twitter.com/gill_gross/status/1302704434422652928?s=21 He must have hit the ball hard. The lines woman is screaming.

September 7th, 2020 at 6:22 am

VP. Just please stop with the conspiracy theories. This default has been long overdue. He deserves it. Booooooo

September 7th, 2020 at 6:24 am

Sad as this is, and leaving one with even fewer special players to watch in this USO (unless you are Medvedev’s relative or something),it is the right decision.

Novak had a very, very close escape with a racquet bouncing madly, just a foot away from a linesperson in RG 2016. But you can’t play with fire all the time.

September 7th, 2020 at 6:44 am

To be honest this was a long time coming. He smacks the ball when frustrated, yells at the crowd, and even last years Aussie open he put his hands on the umpire during the finals. He even admitted afterword that he needs to calm it down.

Sooner or later this was going to happen. He’s a bit of a complicated guy and admitted in interviews he’s still trying to figure himself out, and not to take things so harshly.

He a decent guy with a large ego,sometimes unable to control it, and I’m sure he will do proper reflection and be better for it, at least for his own sake.

As far as speaking to press, who cares nobody likes the press,they would have baited him into more anger, and he knows himself well enough not to play their game.

September 7th, 2020 at 7:08 am

” I need to go back within and work on my disappointment ..

All he needs is more Pepe-talk and he’ll be good to go again.
What a putz.

September 7th, 2020 at 8:23 am

What’s McEnroe’s problem? Saying ND will be a bad guy for the rest of his life. This is sport and shit happens. Zidane headbutted an opponent in the 2006 fifa world cup, that didn’t make him a bad guy. Djokovic deserved the default and he accepted it gracefully. He shouldn’t be labeled a bad guy for a mistake and for not doing a press conference. He owes them no press conference after losing all rankings and prize money for the tournament. Worse things have happened in other sports and nobody is labeled a bad guy forever except an unrepentant person. Shame on Enroe.

September 7th, 2020 at 9:52 am

I think some comments are going to extremes due to fanaticism: either of Nolefans or of haters.

It was extremely unfortunate and clearly there were no ill intentions from Novak. Had the ball hit her somewhere else and she raised a thumbs up, then the match would’ve probably continued as normal. Or had she been more attentive, or the ball taken a slightly different trajectory or Novak more conscious…

But the fact remains that he hit her, she was struggling for air, and the rules are the rules. He was rightly disqualified, but it was ill luck.

That’s not the same as saying that Novak is evil or a constant threat to those surrounding him. That’s pushing things way too far.

As a fan of his, I feel utterly disappointed, and fear that maybe he won’t be able to catch up the other two in GS. He’s not getting any younger and the new generation is finally showing up. I hope he proves me wrong and refocuses after this sh*tty incident.

September 7th, 2020 at 10:18 am

“All lines persons and ball boys should be fully attentive at all times”, this is clearly a comment by a blinded moronanatic.
Where are they, in a war-zone, where some-one is shooting bullets? Its true they have to be attentive when the point is alive. After that, ball boys/girls look to get the ball, lines persons stay in place and can look anywhere they please.
That said, the ball Joker fed to her was not as slow as his fanboys want other to believe it to be. Ball from that close with that speed to a sensitive area of an older person, not realizing it is coming to hit her, can be painful; and that is exactly what happened, it was painful to her for a few minutes. Flopping argument is something mad nole fanatics want the narrative to be directed towards. Default was written in the stone as soon as the idiot hit the ball in disgust of himself and hit the lady. Actually, it was his stature as a global tennis icon and one of the greats, made that writing almost vanish; that’s why it took so long for them to point him to the door. It’s a sad situation brought upon by himself, noone else. These players are professionals who get paid buttload of money to play the sport. The rules are there so they don’t do what they please out of arrogance/ignorance/frustration and what not. He’s been a pro for almost 20 years he should’ve known that. It’s actually very puzzling he seemed that much frustrated from even before the incident. He didn’t need to be, he was a clear favorite and was expected to win it. May be that’s internal cock —-iness was the problem. :)

September 7th, 2020 at 10:34 am

You victim-blaming morons are so gross.

September 7th, 2020 at 10:37 am

hehe,

I am just expecting for Novak to win again :)…I have the feeling it might happen soon ;)
It will be all nice and quiet :D

September 7th, 2020 at 10:50 am

HE is a tennis professional, the lines-woman is not. She bears no responsibility other than watch the lines and call them in or out. Next thing people will be suggesting is she should have wore a hockey mask. Why didn’t she? She should have had Kobe Byrant hands and caught the ball? Why didn’t she? She should have had Dodge ball experience. Why didn’t she?

September 7th, 2020 at 11:01 am

He lost touch with reality and it’s too late to apologize repeatedly & talk about feeling “sad & empty”. He wants to destroy himself, and play stupid, in his delusional world. That’s insanity.

The lineswoman is at fault too.
How do you not even pay attention during the match? She knew that he used to hurl balls around. She’s a little too slow to do this. She’s supposed to be looking around the players and being careful. She looks like she was staring at one place and felt stunned.
The rule is really stupid. You should get a point deduction for being extremely stupid but not abusive. You don’t lose the match! It’s not about other players copycatting. This was not a vicious act.
Serena Williams viciously harassed umpires, and Roddick lied and abused linesmen, but they were hardly penalized.

September 7th, 2020 at 11:13 am

Question??? Why would the lines person do a flop act? Seriously?? Are you saying she’s thinking “ Hey y’all, I don’t like the number one player in the world so I’ll put on this big act to see if I can get him DQd?? Get real people. I am sure she was stunned and hurt. The statement that they all should be on their toes,…. well my answer to that is Novak needs to watch his temper. End of story. Agree with Skeezer and thank you Giles for the link. All the players need to learn from his actions. He’s not by himself on this, for sure! We see it take place often and this behavior is inexcusable. Athletes are looked up to by our young children and these temper fits are out of line.

September 7th, 2020 at 11:18 am

@Skeezer 11:01
Spot on! These outbursts on court need to stop!

September 7th, 2020 at 11:21 am

Telperion, he became evil because of his reckless behavior this year. It’s ignorant to say he did little more than make errors. He’s beyond selfish & sabotaged his career.
His sanity is really low. I thought he was getting better but he’s not. He showed signs of deterioration in Cincinnati. He didn’t back up the win at all.
Still clinging on to fame and bragging about his image and money. It spelled disaster and career meltdown. This year was worse than when Nalbandian ended his career by smashing the linesman & going away. John McEnroe must be so happy.

September 7th, 2020 at 11:22 am

https://twitter.com/frankie2709/status/1302706690131988487?s=21 FEDAL at the moment? Hahaha

September 7th, 2020 at 11:51 am

Tenisbebe – Don’t be sleazy and rewrite what I said and put it out as my own words in quotes:
“Chrisford1: ” but this one was on the old oblivious line judge who had no business being on court”.
BAD MOVE!
Especially when my actual quote, after saying the DQ was proper, was this:
” but this one is as much on the old, oblivious line judge who had no business being on court as it is on Novak.”
I put part of the blame on the line judge, and by implication the USTA who hired her. You don’t like my opinion, fine, but don’t deliberately misquote me to frame me as a heartless beast, persecuting the poor, poor Victim judge.
Had an attentive line judge been in that position, one with the reflexes needed to be out there:
1. The person ducks.
2. The person catches the ball, as just about any ball kid could.
3. The person has the reflexes and constitution not to flop or inhale their own spit, and wave off the soft no nevermind impact on the side of their neck if distracted (which the line judge was not by any other party on court, she ).

It is important because had a regular line judge been on the job that meet expectations, Djokovic gets a 2nd code violation and loses the game and set. The sanction he should have gotten had this been 99 of 100 other line judges. Which would have been huge and a big, big punishment, but would have kept the match alive and still able to be decided by the competitors.

McEnroe pointed out that maybe the incident will raise questions of why have line judges at all if they just went with Hawkeye like they did on the other courts except Louis Armstong and Arthur Ashe stadium.
Another commentor also agreed that by the rules, Djokovic had to be DQ’d, even if it was unintended, even if the line judge should have avoided the hit. The referee had no choice. But went on to talk about the rigorous training in alertness, hand eye coordination, reflexes, and overall fitness that ball kids, even photographers have to have before being allowed courtside. And wanted to know what sort of training and qualification line judges must have to be allowed courtside.

September 7th, 2020 at 4:31 pm

Years of inferiority complex and jealousy, boiled over; but ironically in a tournament that was his to loose by a country mile. Same goes for his fans. The bigger irony is, this has happened when he has already achieved it all. Although, the pettiness in behavior was there since the very beginning (Apparently, came from the parents and then obviously spilled over to his fanatics).
But post 2010, he more-or-less carried himself well (especially with people outside of the court; on court, dubious injury postures, to throw opponents off is is all over youtube (murray, delpo, wawrinka all know very well; though with wawrinka it didn’t work) and grown as a classy champion. But that complex must have been rooted way too deep to overcome. Hence, even in a match he was likely going to win pretty easily (even with lost set1), he was snapping like a cheap rubber band.
Every player gets frustrated and throws ball in anger when things don’t work but they (even him before this) are mostly mindful to hit up or to the net or somewhere else to make sure it doesn’t hit people. This time he didn’t pay attention hence payed the price. As simple as that. The rage among his can be understood because they have always been the true adopters of whataboutism. What about Fed is all they cry in every corner. The guy is in the past, your guy is supposed to upend (if not join) Fed and Nadal as the very global face of tennis. To the most extent he has done it, it’s just that his envious fans can rise above the pettiness.

September 8th, 2020 at 10:39 am

^^His envious fans can’t rise above the pettiness.

September 8th, 2020 at 10:48 am

Lol dalbandian,

Before you do worry about Nole’s (and his fans) state of mind, take a good look at the mediocre article, where we are posting… take a look at what you are posting. You are writing as this incident would be the pinacle of Nole’s achievements. Tells a lot about yourself.

Do not worry about the so called “frustrated” fans of Nole and try to take care of you. Looks like you need it 🙂

September 8th, 2020 at 1:26 pm

Van Persie,
You definitely chuckled, didn’t you; hope tears didn’t drip.
I am not frustrated on the events. I am not happy about what happened either, it was unfortunate. But what’s sad is that Nole fans blaming that lady or crying “what would’ve happened if Nadal or Fed had done it’ and other bullshit.
I agree, the article is mediocre, it’s actually not even an article, but you and I are posting in it aren’t we, and you way more than me from what I see. So, take some breathing practice and let go of the hurt feeling there. Nole deserved it or if it was Fedal, they would have been DQ’ed as well.
But, other things I said above are clear. Nole has shown dubious injury tactics mid match against several players. You or other fanatic would like it to be untrue or vanished form Youtube, but it’s all there as clear as day. So, the inferiority complex on his fans is real because, Nadal or Federer(as much as I dis like one and dislike other) have never done something like Nole did in that Aus final against Murray or another match (I think in sanghai) against Delpo; Start limping for 2-3 points as if you are going to retire and as soon as the opponent thinks, o this guys seem injured, he is flying. Why do that? Don’t tell he hasn’t done it.
So, now I am going to stop posting to this <mediocre post. Rest well before to heal the hurt feelings.

September 8th, 2020 at 1:51 pm

Van Persie,
You definitely chuckled, didn’t you; hope tears didn’t drip.
I am not frustrated on the events. I am not happy about what happened either, it was unfortunate. But what’s sad is that Nole fans blaming that lady or crying “what would’ve happened if Nadal or Fed had done it’ and other bullshit.
I agree, the article is mediocre, it’s actually not even an article, but you and I are posting in it aren’t we, and you way more than me from what I see. So, take some breathing practice and let go of the hurt feeling there. Nole deserved it or if it was Fedal, they would have been DQ’ed as well.
But, other things I said above are clear. Nole has shown dubious injury tactics mid match against several players. You or other fanatic would like it to be untrue or vanished form Youtube, but it’s all there, as clear as day. So, the inferiority complex on his fans is real because Nadal or Federer have never done something like Nole did in that Aus final against Murray or another match (I think in sanghai) against Delpo- starts limping for 2-3 points as if you are going to retire and as soon as the opponent thinks, o this guys seem injured- he is flying. Why do that? Don’t tell he hasn’t done it.
So, now I am going to stop posting to this <mediocre post. Rest well to heal the hurt feelings.

September 8th, 2020 at 1:53 pm

Don’t know, Nalb, you wrote a bit too much now for my taste. Can you please summarize?

September 8th, 2020 at 2:01 pm

Well, too late, I already said I won’t write another post.
But the summary is a lot of Nole fans here on TX are jealous and petty, he used to be the the same but now he is in a much better place. He has employed gamesmanship quite a few times to win important matches. This USO was a sheer bad luck but a lot of his fans like to interpret it as a ploy to help Fed and Nadal. There you have it.

September 8th, 2020 at 2:35 pm

BTW, To be honest, I didn’t consider yourself as part of that posse I described above though. I am saying this honestly, not that it matters to me how you take it. But your posts, for the most part, I find pretty good and sensible. I don’t adore Nole; that is clear. But I enjoy watching his game. He is one of the greatest ever, could be the GOAT easily when all is said and done. But inferiority complex among a large faction of his fanbase is very palpable.

September 8th, 2020 at 2:41 pm

Nalb,

It is not true. The majority of Nole fans consider that they are harmed by the anglo-saxon press, tennis institutions, and so on (they are exagereting sometimes, but they are also right) … do not consider that they suffer from an inferiority complex. I think anti Nole fans are seeing it that way, because they are surprised that Nole got that far. Still very hard for many to accept it. I tell you, had Nole been atm only a 4-5 GS champion, he wouls have been very much liked….

I could tell that majority Fed fans are suffering from a superiority complex. My take.

Regarding antics: I could talk about every tennis player from the tour: Rafa, Roger, Andy, DelPo, and so on… all the celebrities have issues, let’s be honnest.

At the end of the day, it does’nt matter taht much… itbis also a pleasant year. I do not have that sad feeling anymore, that after US Open, I have to wait til January for the next GS. We have the French in a few weeks 😁.. so all good

September 8th, 2020 at 3:09 pm

When did this become a Fed thing? Lol the complex is on Djoker fans and the mountain chip that is on their shoulders.
I have never had a issue towards Novak the player. HIs game speaks for itself. That guy has Game. His behavior? Another story. The few Djoker fanaticals (Not VP)? Another story. These threads speak for themselves all on that.

September 8th, 2020 at 4:24 pm

VP,
While I do believe in the claims of almost of the anglo-saxon biases that penetrates our societies. Tennis itself is a very anglo-saxon sport by origin. So, there are biases in that regard in many areas of the game, no doubt. What I doubt is Nole being unfairly treated/ targeted in favor of Fed or Nadel at a systemic level. I think It’s Fed they (Nole fans) blame even more than Nadal. A world wide conspiracy of a cult (at every level of tennis) to benefit Fed?, come the f on.

September 8th, 2020 at 4:48 pm

Wow. wow. wow. We humans are really laughable. So, this lines woman should be looking all around the court, jumping left, right, center and every which way in readiness for any misfortune that could occur due to player temper tantrums and frustrations and all that.

At this rate, they might need to hire some top soccer stars from the UK as lines people when ‘you-know-who-Kyrgios’ is playing.

Are we serious?

Please make life easier for yourselves. Djoker will be winning more slams and so will Nadal. Federer and I have not yet had a discussion. We may be meeting for tea after covid…

I leave you with my favorite quote from Dr. Wayne Dyer.

‘When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change’.

September 9th, 2020 at 3:17 am