Ten-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic was inches away and had the slow reaction time of a child before he was knocked out of a Grand Slam event. Second time in his career. On Saturday at the Australian Open, the winningest male tennis player in history almost hit a child with a ball he hit in confusion during his third-round match against Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.
Check out:
You can clearly see the ballkid moving out of the way to avoid being hit. If he had been slow or careless, Djokovic would have been kicked out of the Australian Open. Tournament officials, as much as they want to protect one of the stars of the game, would be unwise. The rules are clear: if you hit the ball while angry or frustrated and it hits someone, you must lose the game.
Dear readers, I cannot emphasize enough how embarrassing this was. First and foremost, Djokovic has already made that mistake and it could cost him the 2020 US Open title. He was in the midst of a tough fourth-round match against Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta when he hit a ball in anger and hit a woman in the throat.
Did he hit her on purpose? He didn’t. Did that change his accusations? No, it never did. The US Open made the difficult decision to stop the favorite who was denied the title. He got angry, his followers insulted the woman saying that she had done too much. Turns out he was the canary in the coal mine. You just got lucky this time, because the child in question was alert.
To be honest, I don’t believe he would intentionally hurt a tournament volunteer (ballkids at the Australian Open don’t get paid). Does that absolve him of responsibility for his lack of self-control? Not even a little bit.
Even from the outside, this looks bad. At the very least, the child would have been hurt. Dig deeper and his carefree and childish demeanor is surprising – as was his apology, if you can call it that.
“I apologize for any distress I may have caused you.”
REALLY? Is that what you regret?
here. Let me fix it. “I am sorry that by behaving like a rebellious child, I not only failed to take responsibility for the safety of the tournament representatives assigned to my game, but I almost let down my fans, my team and the organizers of the event.”
I don’t usually criticize this, but you need to do better. There’s just no diplomatic way to say it.
