Novak Djokovic is the No. 1 men’s tennis player in the world, and he won’t get a chance to prove it after an antic he pulled Sunday at the U.S. Open that got him booted from the tournament.
Djokovic, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, was trailing Pablo Carreño Busta, 6-5, in the first set of a fourth-round match. In obvious frustration because of losing serve, he grabbed a tennis ball from his pocket and angrily hit a forehand towards the back of the court. The ball flew off his racket and smashed a linesman in the head.
The linesman fell to the court, and Djokovic looked like it was completely unintentional. Regardless, Djokovic was disqualified—or defaulted—from the tournament.
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Darren Cahill is a veteran tennis coach who was covering the match for ESPN. He said the tournament made the correct decision in defaulting the world’s top player.
“Players have been defaulted for less,” Cahill said. “I think the tournament made the right decision.”
Djokovic, 33, has won 17 Grand Slam titles in his career, including three at the U.S. Open, eight at the Australian Open, five Wimbledon titles and one French Open championship.
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The Serbian is the winner of this year’s Australian Open, which is the only major that’s been played so far during a COVID-shortened 2020 season.
He most recently won the U.S. Open at Arthur Ashes Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York in 2018.
Djokovic has experienced great success at the U.S. Open, advancing to the finals eight times in his career. He lost three times to Rafael Nadal and once to Roger Federer, who are the only men to have won more major titles than him. Federer has 20 career Grand Slam wins and Nadal has 19. Djokovic is 17-9 in career Grand Slam finals.
Pablo Carreño Busta, who represents Spain, now advances to the quarterfinals.
