Novak Djokovic justifies his racket smash outburst that left a dent on the Centre Court during his Wimbledon finals loss to Carlos Alcaraz
Djokovic smashed his racket against the net post in a fit of rage in response to his serve being broken in the deciding set.
Follow Us
Novak Djokovic (Credits: Reuters)
On being broken in the deciding set of his Wimbledon final against Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, in a fit of rage, smashed his racket against the net post, breaking the racket. The move was met with jeers from the crowd. The break of serve, along with the outburst that followed, proved to be key as Alcaraz managed to hold his serve and win the deciding set, and the Wimbledon title.
During the post-match press conference, Djokovic spoke about his violent outburst on the court. He explained that it was a moment of frustration, as he had just lost a crucial game to Alcaraz.
On being asked about his 2 code violations suffered throughout the match, Djokovic replied, “There’s no much to talk about that. Second one was frustration. I had break points in the second game. Yeah, just tough, tough couple of points. He played amazing to break my serve, which was enough to win the fifth. The first one was the time violation, so yeah. Not a great moment again, but you just kind of have to accept it.”
Novak Djokovic spoke of his erroneous strokes during the second-set tiebreak
Novak Djokovic also remarked that he made errors in many crucial moments of the match. He spoke of his backhand errors during the second-set tiebreak.
“The backhands kind of let me down, to be honest. Set point, I missed the backhand. He did play a backhand that was quite long in the court, had a little bit of a bad bounce. But I should not have missed that shot. Then on 6-All, again, another backhand from middle of the court in the net. Just two very poor backhands. I wasn’t myself for quite some time,” he said.
Alcaraz eventually won the second set tiebreak 7 – 6 (8), which by itself is an incredible feat, given how Djokovic is very efficient at handling them. The last time Novak lost a tiebreak was during the Australian Open to Frenchman Enzo Couacaud.
Alcaraz will gain a lot of confidence following his title run at Wimbledon. He has shown the world that he is capable of battling it out against the greats on the biggest stages of tennis.
In case you missed it:
- Novak Djokovic jokingly recalls 2019 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer admitting he won some titles that he didn’t deserve
- Carlos Alcaraz makes BOLD admission of being the ‘complete player’ as Novak Djokovic called him the combo of the Big-3 after his Wimbledon title
Stay Updated!
Ketan Kunkalikar
(129 Articles Published)