Novak Djokovic has been told that he \u201cshould have hit his opponent\u201d during a controversial incident at the 2020 US Open.<\/p>\n
The world No. 6 was famously defaulted from the tournament when he swiped a ball away in frustration and unintentionally struck a lineswoman.<\/p>\n
The episode has been dragged up in recent days after an altercation between Zizou Bergs and Cristian Garin at the Davis Cup, which saw Garin and Chile disqualified after Bergs barged into him.<\/p>\n
There was drama at the Davis Cup over the weekend as Belgium faced Chile in a qualifier tie. When Bergs broke to serve for the match against Garin, he charged past the net to head to his bench in celebration but floored his opponent in the process.<\/p>\n
Garin was knocked down by Bergs and refused to continue playing, calling on the umpire to disqualify his opponent. The Belgian only received a code violation, and Garin continued to protest the official\u2019s call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to play. You don\u2019t have the guts to disqualify him but you\u2019ll disqualify me. I\u2019ve never had something like this happen. You don\u2019t have the guts. He knocked me out, I fainted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Garin then received a warning for his tirade but carried on. He received a point penalty and a game penalty, which gave Bergs a 6-3 4-6 7-5 victory and meant the tie went to Belgium.<\/p>\n
The Chile Tennis Federation later released a statement accusing Bergs of \u201cattacking\u201d their player and claiming Garin did not receive \u201cproper\u201d medical intervention from the doctor.<\/p>\n
The statement said: \u201cDespite this situation, the general referee, Mr. Carlos Ramos, from Portugal, validated the continuity of the match and urged our player to reintegrate into the game. However, not being able to do so due to dizziness and inflammation in his eye, he was disqualified.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident has sparked debate in the tennis world, with many drawing similarities to Djokovic\u2019s controversial altercation at the US Open more than four years ago.<\/p>\n
During a fourth-round match in 2020, Djokovic grew annoyed after going a break down to Pablo Carreno Busta. He slammed a ball towards the back of the court but it struck a lineswoman and he was defaulted on the spot.<\/p>\n
Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick has now suggested that Djokovic wouldn\u2019t have been disqualified if he hit his opponent instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will say, had Bergs done it to an umpire, he\u2019d have been gone. But apparently you can do it to another player and it\u2019s fine,\u201d the American said on his Served podcast, discussing the Davis Cup debacle.<\/p>\n
Co-presenter Jon Wertheim added: \u201cIf Novak Djokovic taps a ball and it happens to hit a lineswoman and he says, \u2018listen, I didn\u2019t intend anything\u2019. It doesn\u2019t really matter what his intent is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roddick replied: \u201cYeah, he should\u2019ve just hit the opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2003 US Open champion isn\u2019t the only player who believes there is a grey area around the disqualification rules. Former world No. 16 Nikoloz Basilashvili recently suggested that Djokovic would have received a harsher punishment in Bergs\u2019 situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Novak had done this, he would have been disqualified for life. WTF,\u201d he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andy Roddick suggested Novak Djokovic could have avoided controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis"],"yoast_head":"\n