Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic paid dearly for a momentary outburst of relatively mild frustration, but handled it like a consummate gentleman. He deservedly lost a chance at a major title crucial to resumé, but he deserves to win more fans for his sportsmanship.
Djokovic, with 17 major singles titles, is chasing Rafael Nadal, with 19, and Roger Federer, with 20, for bragging rights as the greatest major singles champion in tennis history. With Nadal (fear of COVID) and Federer (injury) absent from this year’s U.S. Open, which continues until next weekend, and Djokovic playing dominant tennis all year, the Serbian seemed likely to nab another Grand Slam trophy.
Instead, toward the end of the first set of his round-of-16 match against Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta, with the Spaniard playing beautiful tennis, Djokovic took a hard spill and painfully jarred his shoulder. A few points later, Carreno Busta broke Djokovic’s serve for a 6-5 lead in the set. While walking to the sideline for the odd-game changeover, the unhappy Djokovic hit a spare ball, a bit too hard, toward the court’s backboard without directly looking where he was hitting it. Unfortunately, the ball caught a line umpire in the throat, leaving her gasping for breath and with a bruise, and she had to leave the court for treatment.
In line with the sport’s rulebook, Djokovic was disqualified from the tournament for “intentionally hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences.” Nobody, Djokovic included, seems to dispute that the disqualification was appropriate.
In Djokovic’s defense, we’ve all seen players hundreds of times knock loose balls toward the backboard, often harder and with far greater histrionics than Djokovic did. Indeed, we’ve seen plenty of times when players knocked balls all the way into the stands, and those who are old enough well remember players such as Ilie Nastase, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors accompanying their misbehavior with strings of expletives.
Djokovic did none of these things. Instead, as soon as he heard the lineswoman gasp, he quickly rushed towards her, apologizing profusely while calling for first aid and offering as much comfort as he could. When high-ranking tournament officials entered the court, he calmly pleaded his case but, when they told him he must be disqualified, he threw no temper tantrum. Instead, he immediately strode toward Carreno Busta to shake his hand.
Later, he issued as classy a statement as could be imagined.
“This whole situation has left me really sad and empty,” he said. “I checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling ok. I’m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong.”
He continued: “As for the disqualification, I need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my growth and evolution as a player and human being. I apologize to the @usopen tournament and everyone associated for my behavior. I’m very grateful to my team and family for being my rock support, and my fans for always being there with me. Thank you and I’m so sorry.”
Not one word of protest or complaint. Just pure class.
Unlike his two great contemporaries, Djokovic rarely has enjoyed massive crowd support. Even though he shows good sportsmanship, something about his facial expressions or body language seems to be less attractive than Federer’s elegance or Nadal’s heart-on-sleeve effort. Yet off the court, Djokovic reportedly is known as thoughtful, witty, warm, and extremely charitable. He’s a champion who merits far more audience love than he receives.
Well, this time he messed up, albeit unintentionally, but if he had hit the ball just two feet in another direction, the worst punishment he would have gotten was a warning, and he might be on his way to his fourth U.S. Open title. That he accepted his just penalty with a dignified apology is a sign of class that few top players four decades ago would have demonstrated.
Novak Djokovic’s chase for the all-time major record just got somewhat harder. For his chances of becoming a fan favorite, though, he just served an ace.
