Novak Djokovic must have feared a repeat of his 2020 US Open disqualification during his fourth-round Wimbledon clash with Roman Safiullin on Sunday afternoon. The Serbian’s heart will have been in his mouth when he tried to knock a ball back to the ball kid, who was knelt by the umpire’s chair.
But instead of directing the ball towards the youngster, it pinged off the umpire’s seat.
Djokovic was disqualified from the American Grand Slam six years ago after hitting a line judge and there was a huge gasp inside Centre Court when this incident occured in just the third game of the match.
Djokovic made a dream start, breaking his opponent’s serve in the opening game. However, his Russian rival struck straight back to make it 1-1.
In the third game, Safiullin’s serve clipped the top of the net and a let was called. Djokovic tried to finesse the pacey delivery back to the ball boy so the game could resume quickly but he got his angle all wrong and the ball flew much higher, making a big ‘clunk’ noise as it whalloped the chair.
Djokovic is hunting a men’s singles record on Centre Court today. He tied Roger Federer‘s 105 victories with his third-round win over No.25 seed Arthur Rinderknech on Friday.
And the 39-year-old is keen to continue entertaining the Wimbledon fans for as long as his body will allow him.
“Well, we are in the entertainment business, as well. I think in the end of the day, you try to bring the quality for the people that pay tickets to come and watch you with your tennis,” Djokovic said ahead of his clash with Safiullin.
“Also, I mean, for me at least, it was always trying to interact in one way or another with the crowd. Over the course of my career, I’ve had many exchanges with the crowd, good and bad.
“Sometimes you have matches where you just try to switch everything and everyone off and not really pay attention. Sometimes if there is a proposal happening and you see it, I think it’s a nice moment if you say a few words. They’ll remember it for a long time. Like it happened in, I think, first or second match that I played.
“Yeah, well, I mean, you’re by yourself on the court, so there’s a lot of emotions that you have to deal with and manage. Sometimes it’s really hard to keep it all inside. Some are more expressive than others, I guess.”