One of the greatest tennis players of all time, Novak Djokovic had had an on-court bust up over crowd behavior after he defeated Holger Rune in a Round of 16 match at Wimbledon. Djokovic claimed that the crowd was booing him, though he was informed by the presenter that crowd was instead cheering for his opponent Rune, a name that produces a similar sound as boos. After Djokovic’s victory over Rune, he also sat down with a BBC reporter for an interview, but didn’t complete the chat as he was asked questions around the crowd incident in the 4th round.
Djokovic slammed the ‘disrespecting’ fans in an epic on-court rant that also saw him mock those booing him. When asked about the incident during the interview, Djokvic said that a section of crowd stepped over the line.
“As I said in the post-match interview, I think most of the people in the stadium were respectful and I thank them and know that after watching tennis all day it’s not easy. I was thankful, I don’t take it for granted, they are a big part of why I still play, the crowds who appreciate what we do and the effort we put in,” he said.
“When I feel that a crowd is stepping over the line, I react, I don’t regret my words or actions on the court.”
Novak Djokovic walked out of his interview with BBC in 98 seconds
Every question was focused on the crowd last night in the Rune match
“Do you have any other questions other than the crowd? Are you focused only on that? This is the 3rd question.”
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) July 9, 2024
When Djokovic was asked another question, again about the way he reacted towards the crowd, the Serb lost his cool and asked if there was another question other than this topic.
“Do you have any questions other than the crowd? Are you focused only on that or any questions about the match, or something like that? Or is it solely focused on that? This is the third question already. I said what I have to say, maybe we can speak about something else,” he said.
The BBC also took to social media to reveal that Djokovic walked out of the interview midway.
“Novak Djokovic walked away from our post-match interview last night after we asked him about his reaction to some of the Centre Court crowd,” BBC Sport wrote on X.
Topics mentioned in this article