“It was nothing personal,” Novak Djokovic clarifies why he didn’t shake hands with the chair umpire after winning his third-round match at Wimbledon
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Novak Djokovic
It was another normal outing for defending Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic in the third round at SW19 as he hammered past countryman Miomir Kecmanovic in straight sets 6-0,6-3,6-4 to reach the Round of 16 at Wimbledon for the 14th time. Djokovic, who looked rusty at the start of the tournament, now looks as solid as ever and is the clear favorite to go all the way.
Djokovic looked in complete control of the proceedings right from the start and bageled Kecmanovic in the first set. The following two sets too were of utter dominance from the Serb as he needed one break of serve each to seal the next two sets 6-3,6-4.
But after the match, during the customary handshake, Djokovic said nice words to Kecmanovic and shook his hand but didn’t shake the chair umpire’s hand after which the umpire gave him a look. In the post-match press conference, when asked why he didn’t shake hands with the umpire, Djokovic was stunned.
Novak Djokovic says he will apologize to the chair umpire
Djokovic said that he doesn’t remember not shaking hands with the chair umpire and didn’t realize it at the moment. He joked that now he knows the reason why the umpire was giving him the looks. He clarified that it was nothing personal and is just forgot about it and will apologize to the umpire later. He then said that the players were forbidden to shake hands due to COVID for over a year and this is the aftereffects of that.
“I really didn’t?! Oh, so that is why he looked at me that way afterward, that’s when I started thinking about whether I shook his hand or not… I will apologize, it was nothing personal. We were forbidden to shake hands for over a year, traces of that I guess,” Djokovic said.
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Lakshya Chopra
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