“A separate time-out for each of his toes” When Patrick and John McEnroe slammed Novak Djokovic for ‘completely abusing rules’ during the US Open finals


“A separate time-out for each of his toes” When Patrick and John McEnroe slammed Novak Djokovic for ‘completely abusing rules’ during the US Open finals

Novak Djokovic, Patrick McEnroe, John McEnroe

21-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic became the first man in history to win all four Grand Slam titles twice, a feat he achieved by winning the 2021 French Open which was later matched by his arch-rival Rafael Nadal by winning the 2022 Australian Open making the two tennis greats the only men to ever achieve the accomplishment.

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Having won his 21st major at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, Djokovic now has 9 titles at the Australian Open, 7 titles at Wimbledon, 3 at the US Open and 2 at the French Open. While Novak is 2-4 in the French Open finals with three of those defeats coming at the hands of ‘King of Clay’ Nadal. Novak is yet to lose a final in the Australian Open and has lost just 1 final at Wimbledon making the US Open one of his worst majors as he is 3-6 in finals in New York, a record that hurts him the most.

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Novak Djokovic was accused of time wasting in the 2016 US Open Finals

Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic

Djokovic’s record in the US Open is quite good at a general standard but when compared to his record at the other three slams, it looks poor and many experts have weighed in on the record over the years. One of the most common observations noted is Djokovic spending all of his energy until the US Open which affects him eventually at the Slam in form of injuries and an empty tank making it difficult for him to win the major.

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However, during the 2016 US Open, Djokovic was the top-seed given he was the World No. 1 and was also the defending champion having clinched his second US Open title in 2015. Novak was up against 2-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka in the finals and it was the second Grand Slam finals meeting between them with the previous one won by Stan in the 2015 French Open. Djokovic was looking for a successful title defence and his 3rd major of the season having won the Australian Open and the French Open that year.

The match started brilliantly for Novak who won a close first-set tiebreaker to take the lead. It however was the only damage he could do as Wawrinka would go on to win the match 6–7(7), 6–4, 7–5, 6–3. In the 4th set, the two players however came to an altercation after the fourth game when Novak trailing 1-3 was granted a medical timeout to treat the blisters on his foot which he dragged on for 6-minutes and looked as if he was trying to break Stan’s momentum.

Wawrinka complained to the chair umpire as after the 5th game, ends were supposed to be changed and he could have taken the break then. Novak said, “Stan, sorry man,” to which Wawrinka coldly replied, “I couldn’t stand, sorry.” Commentating for ESPN, brothers Patrick and John McEnroe also expressed their frustration with Patrick saying, “Complete abuse of the rules. (It’s) up to the officials to do something about it, but they don’t have the guts.” The pair further added, “Djokovic could take a separate time-out for each of his toes.”

While the truth behind the seriousness and urgency of the timeout for Djokovic will remain a secret for outsiders, the incident has been since then stamped as one of the poor shows of sportsmanship from the Serb who has since then reached two finals, winning the US Open in 2018 while finishing runner-up in 2021.

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