“One of the reasons why Novak Djokovic has been so successful is thanks to the Federer fans!” Richard Krajicek claims JEERS from fans motivated the Serb to win
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Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer
Novak Djokovic has dominated the ATP circuit for more than a decade and is considered to be one of the best tennis players. But the World No.1 was never a crowd favorite compared to the immensely popular duopoly of Nadal and Federer.
Former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek claims Djokovic thrives on the negativity he receives and fuels his desire to win titles. Djokovic and Federer have tussled against each other often in finals of Majors, where most of the crowd is entirely behind the Swiss Maestro. But Krajicek believes the jeers he received from Federer’s fans helped Djokovic to win the match.
One such occasion was at the Wimbledon final in 2019 when Djokovic was playing against Roger Federer in front of a parochial crowd and made an incredible comeback to deny the Swiss of winning a record-breaking nine Wimbledon titles. Federer lost the match despite having two championship points on his own serve. The Serb showed incredible mental fortitude and nerves of steel to overpower Federer and the crowd en route to his title win.
“One of the reasons why Novak has been so successful is thanks to the Federer fans. The Federer fans when he played against Novak were so much pushing for Roger and thought they were helping him, but they were actually helping Novak to win those matches,” said Krajicek while speaking to Tennis 365.
“What happened in Australia was tough for him” Richard Krajicek speaks about Djokovic’s Australian Open ordeal
Krajicek also weighed in his opinions on the Australian Open saga involving Djokovic and expressed concerns about his return after going through such an ordeal. He further added that dealing with such a situation is difficult and is different from his on-court battles.
“What happened in Australia was tough for him and it will be interesting to see what happens in Dubai. Normally you would say this is going to motivate the guy and you don’t want to play him because he is more lethal, but this is different,” he said.
“He is used to fighting on the court with the crowd, his opponent and maybe himself sometimes, but this must have been difficult. This is a total different pressure and a different disappointment than having the crowd against you or being match point down at Wimbledon and coming back to win. But you know what, he is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever seen in sport and maybe it will fire him up for. It’s tough to know how he will respond to this,” said Krajicek
The Rotterdam tournament director also said that part of the blame also lies with Tennis Australia as they were the ones that granted him an exemption to enter the country.
“There was a misunderstanding or a miscommunication between Novak, Tennis Australia, or Victoria. If he thought he couldn’t get into the country, he wouldn’t have traveled there. That was not nice for Novak, not nice for the tournament at the beginning, but in the end it was a great Australian Open. I’m happy for tennis fans that in the end it was a great tournament to watch.
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T Rushitha
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