I have already written about the poor judgement displayed over the last year by Novak Djokovic. Between the Adria Tour Covid fiasco and his proclamations that positive emotions can purify water, the world #1 seems to be taking cues from the Kanye West School of Public Meltdowns. Kanye wants to run for president? Novak wants to start a player’s union. Kanye can’t get on the ballot? Novak forgot half of professional tennis players are women. So I’ll be brief about what happened today in Novaxx’s 4th Round disqualification from the U.S. Open.
I’m grateful this happened. It’s a net positive for tennis to reinforce standards of self-control and it is a long time coming for Djokovic. This behavior of slapping balls that are out of play all over the court has been festering with Novak and others for years now. When I was a ball kid in the late 90s, I saw more than enough of it. More recently, Dennis Shapovalov broke an umpire’s eye socket on a total accident of teen stupidity during the 2017 Davis Cup. Somehow, in the few years since, players did not get the memo that such a thing sticks with you forever.
There are some who are questioning the rule or pondering the seriousness of the line judge’s injury. Sorry, this rule is cut and dry. Obviously, it was a total accident. I’m 100% sure he thought he was hitting the ball on the fly to the ball person who would be looking for it and catch it. The language of the rule is clear: “hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences.” Djokovic hit the ball out of frustration and didn’t take care where it was heading. Anybody who has played competitively at the junior level or above knows: if you’re slapping balls around the court that are not in play and you hit anyone, including your opponent, on the fly, it’s game over. How hard or whether it causes injury is not even part of the equation.
Shapovalov knew immediately what he had done in 2017. He didn’t argue the rule for a second. He apologized to everyone involved, including in-person to every Canadian citizen (so I’m told) and went to his press conference to express regret and shame. He was 17. Djokovic is 33. Novaxx not showing up for his press conference compounds his disgrace. Issuing a statement on Instagram… who is running this guy’s PR? Novaxx has had a bad year off the court and today it followed him onto the court where he had been having a year for the ages.
Year for the ages? 2020, you are a year indeed!
Play The Let 