Djokovic told the media after beating Popyrin that the heckler who harassed and disrespected him, actually supplied the spark he needed to overcome the gutsy challenge from the Australian striker:
Novak Djokovic: “…You don’t want to know what he said [smiling]. There was a lot of things that were being told to me on the court, particularly from that corner, and the same side the other corner. I was tolerating it for most of the match. At one point I had enough, and I asked him whether he wants to come down and tell it to my face. When you confront somebody, unfortunately for him, he didn’t have the courage to come down. That’s what I was asking him. If you have courage, if you’re such a tough man, tough guy, come down and tell it to my face, and let’s have a discussion about it. He was apologizing from far away. That’s all it is.”
The verbal altercation backfired on the heckler, and perhaps the dark force which may have hired or incentivized him: “Yeah, maybe that was needed. I don’t know [smiling]. Look, I don’t want to be in those types of situations. Yeah, I was flat I guess emotionally. Game-wise I was quite flat for some part of the match, end of second set, most of the third set. Maybe that was needed for me to be shaken up a bit and start to find the kind of intensity on the court that I needed to have all match.”
Djokovic prevailed in four sets 63 46 76 63. Djokovic now 14-1 vs Australians in Grand Slams, only loss was to Lleyton Hewitt at US Open in 2005 or 2006.
This was the 30th win in a row for Djokovic at AO, his last loss was to Hyeon Chung six years ago.
Cyndy · January 21, 2024 at 10:54 am
Scoop Malinowski— that was really terrible from that heckler and it is almost always done during Djokovics’s matches, I mean I don’t see this kind of unruly behaviour in other matches apart from Djokovic matches. Unless of course that guy was hired or something as all sorts of nasty devious tricks being used so he loses a point or to inflect a deviation in order to lose a point(s). He should have been hauled for bullying when play is in progress but I suppose no such rule/law. Then there is the question of what is the umpire doing. Any other player would have crumbled and folded. It’s good that it was streamed live and so the whole world could see that. Hopefully it should deter him from repeating this again, terrible.
Scoop Malinowski · January 21, 2024 at 6:01 pm
Cyndy, I’m certain the tennis deep state is hiring/incentivizing goons to heckle Djokovic. This contributes to create the negative image the establishment wants to smear Djokovic with. They dont like that he is so popular and beloved, they want to make him the villain but they failed and they will always fail. It’s despicable how far and how low the dirty tennis deep state will go to push their rotten agendas. They also hired the carrot boys to help build the popularity and aura for Sinner, who has a boring personality.
Cyndy · January 21, 2024 at 6:45 pm
Scoop Malinowski— yes it does look like they have planted those carrot boys for the benefit of Sinner. He and Alcaraz have had no real players to face with real fire power or athleticism. And no Australians to face too in their draw as the crowd at RLA seem to be beyond one sided and boorish behaviour. If you saw what happened to the DeMinaur/Rublev match even the Djokovic/Popyrin match with that heckler plus the one sided crowd. The Ofner/Kokkinakis match too was the same. I agree with you on Sinner having a super boring personality and all. Seems like they are getting him all hyped up with his matches won and which the commentators keep saying he hasn’t dropped a set etc (really felt Kachanov should have won a set) they have Alcaraz on standby what with all his easy draw. I mean he got Shang in Round 3 who was no match at all. Kecemanic needs to step up.