Ten-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic invited a heckling fan to confront him face-to-face during his hard-fought second-round Australian Open 2024 win against local hope Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday.
Watch ARY News live on live.arynews.tv
The 36-year-old Serb was not at his best and was irritated at times by a raucous late-night crowd at the Rod Laver Arena. But the world number one fought off four set points in the third set to claim a 6-3 4-6 7-6(4) 6-3 victory to stay on course for a record-extending 25th Grand Slam title.
Alexei Popyrin’s chances quickly evaporated in the fourth set in which Novak Djokovic traded barbs with an unruly fan.
“I mean, you don’t want to know (what he said),” Novak
Djokovic said explaining what happened later. “There was a lot of things that were being told to me on the court, particularly from that corner, and the same side the other corner. I was tolerating it for most of the match.“At one point I had enough, and I asked him whether he wants to come down and tell it to my face. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have the courage to come down. That’s what I was asking him. If you have courage, if you’re such a tough man, tough guy, come down and tell it to my face, and let’s have a discussion about it.”
Related – Watch: Tennis great Novak Djokovic plays cricket with Steve Smith
Leave a Comment