Time and a Place

Novak Djokovic is trying so hard. He’s unfailingly classy after matches: when he wins he’s respectful and encouraging and when he loses he’s congratulatory. Young players on tour have spoken glowingly of his efforts to help and even fund their early careers. While he’s embroiled in the occasional spat, like the ongoing discourse about that Ben Shelton celebration, 99% of the time, he’s intent on not saying a bad word about anyone. Tell him that Rafael Nadal gave a mildly salty quote about the GOAT debate that Twitter user Pavvy G finds appalling and detestable and grounds to put Rafa in a small padded cell with only tapes of his hard court matches with Djokovic for entertainment and Novak would say, “no matter what, Nadal is my greatest rival, and I hope we can be friends after we retire.” It’s admirable gestures like this that have resulted in a recent push among Djokovic fans and even some pundits for Novak to win the sportsmanship award.

Unfortunately for those people, sportsmanship is not limited to being a great guy after matches and supporting younger players. It also includes not smashing your rackets or telling various crowds to suck your dick. It’s an interesting tension, really. Djokovic wants to be nice and succeeds with flying colors most of the time. But then a spectator pushes his buttons or he makes a bad error at an inconvenient moment of a match that everyone knows he will win anyway, the racket splinters and the curses fly.

Nadal and Roger Federer don’t do these things. Don’t bother sending me the clip of Federer smashing a racket against Djokovic in the 2009 Miami semifinal — I’ve seen it and for each moment like that, I can find 10 involving Novak. Federer and Nadal just have a better handle on their tempers and their potty mouth. They’ve also never had to deal with the hostile crowds that Djokovic goes up against every year. Maybe they would have handled the taunting better than Djokovic handles it. Maybe they would have handled it worse.

One of the most compelling parts of a story is the character who does things that you wouldn’t do, but has such understandable reasons for doing so that your sympathy overpowers any judgment you might pass on them. (I don’t mean Djokovic not getting vaccinated, that was just dumb.) But you’d have to be emotionally stunted not to feel a little bad when crowds jeer at Djokovic. It’s been 13 years since the start of the season during which Djokovic made it to #1 in the world and he still lacks the near-100% approval rating of Roger and Rafa, even though he’s better than them both. He rarely starts shit with fans in the crowd; someone will set him off and he’ll lash back. He’s trying. He’s just not perfect at letting the anger seep through the cracks. No one is.

Djokovic just broke that mold a little bit. Usually, when Djokovic and the crowd get into it, the match will have its testy moments. I was at Novak’s match with Enzo Couacaud last year, in which he dropped a set and had testy moments with some fans. The drunk fans around me were a classic case of people rooting against Djokovic, not rooting for his opponent. They got so annoying that I said something to them when they started antagonizing someone who was just trying to enjoy the match. I got why Djokovic barked back. Then there was the Wimbledon semifinal last year against Jannik Sinner, when Djokovic saved two set points to hold for 5-all in the third set and mock-cried to troll the crowd, which had been hoping for Sinner to win the set. It was funny. Even the imitation of Ben Shelton’s “dialed-in” celebration worked for me — that third set had been tight and tough, and Shelton had a set point along the way. Want to stick it to a boisterous opponent who had the fans fully behind him? Go right ahead.

Tonight, against Adrian Mannarino, Djokovic reeled off the first two sets 6-0, 6-0. Mannarino, having played three consecutive five-setters in the previous rounds, was probably running on empty, not that it would have mattered when Djokovic was hitting the ball so cleanly. At 30-all in the first game of the third set, Djokovic got annoyed at a fan distracting him, banged down a service winner, and started blowing kisses. More celebrations followed. A game later, the umpire started the serve clock when the crowd was still buzzing, which Djokovic took issue with enough to argue about. Naturally, the fans were invited to be even louder. After shaking hands with Mannarino, Djokovic beckoned the crowd to cheer for him, as players usually do after epic rallies, then leapt into a fist-pump and a roar.

Much as I enjoy it when Djokovic deservingly sticks it to the crowd, the mid-match showboating before he had lost a single game felt kind of pathetic to me. I liked his previous fuck-yous to the crowd because they were usually about denying fans of what they wanted: to watch him lose. But for that to work, Djokovic losing, or being under serious pressure, has to at least be a faint possibility. At this point in the Mannarino match, losing literally could not have been less of a risk. Djokovic had already denied those fans of what they wanted. Blowing the kiss at a moment that would have no impact on the set, much less the match will give his haters fuel until the next time vaccination comes up.

Not only that, but the little episode was disrespectful to Mannarino. All’s fair in love, war, and a close tennis match with an uneasy atmosphere. At 6-0, 6-0? Dude, just get on with the match so that your poor opponent can get off the court and have a tequila. I promise, the chair umpire could have docked you an entire set for time violations and you would have won the match anyway. Blow the fans a little kiss after match point if you must, but keep things rolling so that you don’t piss off your probably-already-depressed opponent. I have a hard time imagining that Djokovic, usually so considerate of opponents, couldn’t have ignored the background noise for once.

*****

Djokovic is a complicated guy. Like I said, he’s usually respectful almost to the brink of parody. He’s allowed a slipup. Of course, since this is the internet, takes will be all over the map. I got the full range of replies on Twitter when I shared my thoughts on the hell app. Some used the moment as evidence that Djokovic is a horrible person. (He isn’t.) Some thought he was completely within his rights and did nothing wrong by trying to create drama when all anyone else wanted to do was just go home. (He wasn’t.) As usual, no one’s mind is going to change.

Ironically given the lopsided scoreline, this match might highlight Djokovic’s more enigmatic qualities as much as any other. When serving at 6-0, 2-0, Djokovic hunched over and shook a little bit. I can’t begin to guess why he was having physical issues after a frictionless set and a half, and I’m no closer to knowing why the issue popped up for a moment and then was never a problem for the rest of the match. I don’t buy an ounce of the theory that Djokovic plays possum — if you think he needs help to beat anyone, you’re crazy — but moments like this make you at least understand where the idea comes from, right? We’ve been conditioned to expect someone’s level to dip when they’re visibly exhausted. Djokovic’s doesn’t really change, and sometimes it goes up. He hit an ace and won one of the better rallies of the match directly after his apparent discomfort.

I think that Djokovic is extremely skilled at navigating physical issues, which he experiences with increasing frequency in his late 30s. I also think that when he’s cruising in a match, it helps him stay motivated to create little hurdles for himself, whether that’s by taking on the crowd or even dropping serve on purpose once in a while. But really, I don’t know why the hell Djokovic roared like an animal after holding for 6-0, 3-0 in this match and why he only did a small fist-pump after beating Sinner in a much closer, much more important contest in the 2023 Wimbledon semis. I don’t know how Djokovic goes into tournaments with physical issues and looks healthier in the final than he does in the third round. I don’t know how Djokovic operates so well when it looks like he’s dying on the court. Partisan fans certainly don’t care about the why; rather than admitting that they’re confused, Djokovic lovers defend him to the death and Djokovic haters embrace the nuclear option in the opposite direction. He must be faking. No, he’s desperately sick and handling it like a champ! The truth is that no one but the man himself knows how Djokovic actually feels because he’s a complex guy who does inexplicable things sometimes. That isn’t going to change. The least we can do is try to accept what we can’t explain.