John McEnroe on Novak Djokovic default: Makes it worse that he didn’t speak to press

Tennis legend John McEnroe says World No. 1 Novak Djokovic should not have skipped his post-match press conference after his sensational disqualification from the US Open on Sunday. 

Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a tennis ball late in the first set of  in his fourth-round match on Sunday. It marked an incredible end to his unbeaten streak this season - and also ended his campaign for an 18th Grand Slam title at a tournament in which he was the overwhelming favourite.

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic was defaulted from his fourth-round match at the #USOpen after he accidentally hit a line judge with a tennis ball Sunday. pic.twitter.com/TTstxZB2Jw

— ESPN (@espn) September 6, 2020

According to Forbes magazine, which quoted an interview on ESPN, McEnroe says, “You gotta man up there, that’s dumb. It made no sense to me because normally in the past at least I’ve seen him take responsibility when he’s blown it and in this case, it just makes it even worse that he didn’t show up. So what if he apologized on Twitter on the way to the plane, that’s not good enough. But that’s what happened.”

John McEnroe says it will be interesting see how Novak Djokovic handles the pressure.

McEnroe, himself, has been defaulted at a Grand Slam event in the past - at the 1990 Australian Open, he was defaulted for arguing with and abusing the tournament officials during his fourth round match against Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors. That made him the first player since 1963 to be disqualified from a Grand Slam tournament for misconduct.

The tennis legend says it will be interesting to see how the Serb rebounds from the incident. "The pressure just got to him I think. I think a lot’s been going on off the court. It’s obviously affected him and now whether he likes it or not, he’s going to be the bad guy the rest of his career. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it.  It’s about how will he deal with this moving forward? What type of reaction will he get from the other players? What type of reaction will he get when fans start coming back to the sports arenas? These are all issues that you don’t know the answers to....I’m just amazed, amazed that he did something as bone-headed as that in a situation where he was the overwhelming favorite.”

Still McEnroe did not put it past the Serbian champion to rebound from this incident and continue his chase for tennis history. "I didn’t say he couldn’t recover. If he embraces that role, I think he could recover, absolutely. He’s chasing history, he’s trying to pass Rafa [Nadal] and Roger [Federer on the all-time Grand Slams list]. He’s younger, we all know that. He’s got a lot of things going for him, but this is obviously a stain that he’s not going to be able to erase, whether he likes it or not."

Shortly after the incident, Novak Djokovic posted a statement on social media shortly in which he apologised for his actions. "This whole situation has left me really sad and empty. 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. I’m not disclosing her name to respect her privacy. 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."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/327T0IN