Novak Djokovic has rarely shied away from making his feelings heard both on and off the court, and after he was irked by the actions of Cameron Norrie during a match in the Italian Open on Tuesday, he made his feelings known.
At the beginning of the second set, Norrie hit Djokovic in the back of the leg with an overhead smash as Djokovic had already turned around, essentially conceding the point.
Despite immediately attempting to apologize after the incident, it not received well by Djokovic. The unhappiness and furious stare from Djokovic continued for a considerable stretch as the match proceeded.
But the world’s No. 1 tennis player’s issues with his opponent apparently stemmed from his behavior beyond the lone incident, per Andrew Damph of the Associated Press.
“I did watch the replay when he hit me. Maybe you could say he didn’t hit me deliberately,” Djokovic said. “It was not so much maybe about that. ... From the very beginning, he was doing all the things that were allowed. He’s allowed to take a medical timeout. He’s allowed to hit a player. He’s allowed to say ‘Come on’ in the face more or less every single point from basically the first game.”
What happened there? 😳#IBI23 pic.twitter.com/anA3ZvqVjj
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“Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play, it’s not how we treat each other,” Djokovic said. “He brought the fire, and I responded to that. I’m not going to allow someone behaving like this just bending my head. I’m going to respond to that.”
Djokovic didn’t let Norrie’s supposedly questionable actions deter him from taking care of business on the court as he advanced to the Italian Open quarterfinals with a dominant 6–3, 6–4 win on Tuesday.
