Comments made by Novak Djokovic “unnecessary”: Vienna tournament director


It is a common fact that Novak Djokovic had only one reason for choosing to play in the Vienna Open. He required two wins at the ATP 500 event to guarantee himself the year-end World No.1 ranking. The Serb has been hunting for the achievement to equal a record set by American legend Pete Sampras.
He did manage to secure two wins at the tournament, including a tough second-round win over Borna Coric. However, in the next match, the quarterfinals against lucky loser Lorenzo Sonego, he produced one of his worst-ever performances and fell to a 6-2, 6-1 loss. Doing so resulted in his first-ever loss against a lucky loser and also the heaviest defeat of his career.
Novak Djokovic was remorseless after the loss

In his post-match press conference, Djokovic was quick to express his admission of Sonego’s quality. The world no. 1 said, “He just blew me off the court, that’s all. He was better in every segment of the game… it was a pretty bad match from my side, but amazing from his side. He definitely deserved this result.”
However, another excerpt from his comments caught some flak because one wouldn’t expect such words being said by a world no. 1. He expressed no remorse towards his loss, adding that he was completely fine with the result.
Djokovic continued, “Yes, clinching the [year-end] number one had an effect on me today. I’ve done what I came here for, securing the number one. And I move completely fine with today’s result.”
Vienna tournament director unimpressed

Herwig Straka, the Vienna Open tournament director, was utterly disappointed with these words spoken by the Serb.
On the topic of the post-match conference, Straka remarked to Der Standard, an Austrian daily, “I find such statements unnecessary. Even if you would think so, you don’t say that in any press conference.”
His remarks about the Serb’s comments are certainly a target at his poor performance, almost accusing him of tanking without explicitly saying so.
Yash Vinod
(82 Articles Published)