By Maler Suresh
August 31st was the opening day of the 140th edition of the US Open. Although the tournament certainly looks different this year, tennis players from countries around the world still have come to New York City to play the game that they love, with an added $3.85 million in prize money on the line. The “Big Three” players dominating men’s tennis at the moment are Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal. Without Federer and Nadal present at the US Open, Djokovic was expected to win his 18th Grand Slam title. However, his path to the final was quickly cut short.
Going into his Round of 16 match, Djokovic played against Pablo Carreno Busta, who is ranked as 27th in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP.) Djokovic, currently ranked as number 1, was a clear favorite. However, Busta gave Djokovic a tougher match than he may have been expecting.
Busta played smart. He did an excellent job predicting Djokovic’s drop shots and using his speed to get himself in the right position to hit the ball into the open court. With Djokovic about to win the first set at 5-4, 0-40 on Busta’s serve, this thoughtful style of play was what allowed Busta to save all three set points, getting the score to 40-40. In the midst of this slump, Djokovic angrily smacked a ball into the side court, prompting the match commentator, and former player, James Blake to say, “You’ve got to be confident to hit that. If he’d hit it a little higher he would’ve hit a cameraman.” Surprisingly, Djokovic didn’t receive a warning from the chair umpire, and Busta won the game, bringing the score to 5-5. Busta then broke Djokovic’s serve, giving him a 6-5 lead. Annoyed with his own playing, Djokovic took an extra ball out of his pocket and, without looking, slammed it away. Although it obviously was not his intention to hit anybody, the ball struck a lineswoman directly in the throat, causing her to fall, gasping for air.
Djokovic immediately walked over to the lineswoman and apologized to her, but she was still struggling to breathe as a trainer and some others joined him in a huddle around her. After it was clear that she would be okay, Djokovic met with tournament referee Soeren Friemel and Andreas Egli, the Grand Slam supervisor, to discuss the situation. Their conversation carried on for almost 10 minutes, in which Djokovic seemed to be attempting to make his case to continue playing the match. Ultimately, Djokovic quietly packed up his things and left the court without a statement.
“His point was he didn’t hit the line umpire intentionally,” said Friemel. “He said, ‘Yes I was angry. I hit the ball. I hit the line umpire. The facts are very clear, but I didn’t do it on purpose.’ So he said, ‘I shouldn’t be defaulted for that.’” Although it was clearly not intentional, Djokovic’s extra hit, and the circumstances surrounding it, have clearly stated consequences as per the Grand Slam rulebook.
The United States Tennis Association confirmed that: “In accordance with the Grand Slam rulebook, following his actions of intentionally hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences, the US Open tournament referee defaulted Novak Djokovic from the 2020 US Open. Because he was defaulted, Djokovic will lose all ranking points earned at the US Open and will be fined the prize money won at the tournament in addition to any or all fines leveled with respect to the offending incident.”
Djokovic later expressed his remorse on social media, saying, “This whole situation has left me really sad and empty. I checked on the linesperson and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling ok. I’m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress…I need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my growth and evolution as a player and human being…I apologise to the US Open tournament and everyone associated for my behaviour…”
This match ends a perfect season for Djokovic and opens up the floor for players like Dominic Thiem and Sasha Zverev, who have made it to the finals, to win their first Grand Slam.
