Novak Djokovic put his finger to his ear as he clashed with the Wimbledon crowd on Centre Court against Wu Yibing. The Serbian veteran appeared to take offence at the British audience favouring his opponent, who came into the match as a major underdog but went on to take the second set.
Having won the crowd over with a series of audacious shots and hard-fought play, Wu’s name rang out loud inside the venue. There was only one match playing at the entire tournament at the time, with the remainder of the evening session suspended due to a lack of light, putting all the focus on Djokovic vs Wu.
But as the crowd chanted “Wu” it appeared to many that they were booing Djokovic.
The 26-year-old Chinese star had his name roared even when Djokovic won points, which appeared to frustrate the seven-time Wimbledon champion.
But as he fought back in the third set, Djokovic won a crucial point and then immediately pointed to his ear and appeared to cup it, looking around to the entire stadium.
BBC commentator Andrew Cotter described the moment: “It’s loose, it’s wide. It’s wild from Wu and Djokovic says ‘cheer for me now’. And they do!”
Co-commentator John McEnroe added: “You don’t do that to Djokovic, start chanting Wu. It’s a bad idea. We’ve seen it hundreds of time. He’s like thank you.”
Cotter continued: “He has this curious relationship wtih Centre Court. Sometimes they go against him, they are looking for the underdog and the story. But if you wind him up like that and cheer for his opponent, he will feed off that.”
It’s not the first time that crowd support for a rival has riled Djokovic up. In 2024, the seven-time champion faced Holger Rune in the fourth round on Centre Court, and fans chanted: “Ruuuune.” But the Serbian superstar thought they were booing him and called the crowd out during a tense on-court interview.
“To all those people that have chosen to disrespect the player, in this case me, have a gooood night,” he said. When told that the spectators were simply saying the Dane’s name, Djokovic added: “They were disrespecting me. I don’t accept it. I know they were cheering for Rune, but that’s an excuse to also boo.”
Djokovic is attempting to win a joint record eighth Wimbledon men’s title, and is a nine-time finalist at SW19. But his relationship with the crowd has not always been pleasant.
He often felt overlooked and claimed to have not received the same love and adoration that his predecessors, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, were met with during their careers.