Defending champion Novak Djokovic asked an unruly spectator to “come and talk to his face” during a particularly heated second-round duel against Alexei Popyrin at the Australian Open tennis tournament on Wednesday evening.
With the score at 2-2 in the fourth set, the 10-time Australian Open titleholder took a break, walked to the back of the court and shouted at a spectator. Then, he won three consecutive games to beat the local favorite 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4) and 6-3.
After a direct error from Popyrin sealed the outcome of the match, the Serb again turned towards the crowd and shouted at them, raising his fist to the sky to taunt them. Asked after the meeting what had made him lose his temper, Djokovic replied: “You don’t want to know.”
“I tolerated him for most of the meeting. At a certain point, I lost my patience, he explained. He didn’t have the courage to go down to ground level. That’s what I told him: ‘If you have the courage, if you’re as tough as you say you are, boy, then come down here and say it to my face.’ »
It didn’t come to fruition. Djokovic did not ask for the spectator to be expelled. Security did not intervene.
Djokovic continued his press briefing by discussing his upcoming match, but still seemed burned by the incident.
“I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Everything’s fine.’ It’s not going well, he continued. Of course I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I don’t want to have to go through this, but I have to accept it. »
“Sometimes I am unable to tolerate someone who crosses the line. That’s all,” he concluded.
Djokovic dealt with discomfort in one wrist and said after his first match — a four-set duel that ended after four hours of hard work against 18-year-old tennis player Dino Prizmic — that he was not not at peak physical form.
He praised the work of Popyrin, who developed a game plan that gave him a hard time.
“I haven’t played to my full potential, and I’m still trying to get there,” explained the 36-year-old veteran. You always play against players who have nothing to lose in the first rounds. They give everything they have because they find themselves on center court. »
“I hope that I will be able to build on [cette victoire] as the tournament progresses,” added Djokovic, who will cross swords with Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry, 30e seeded, in the third round.
For his part, Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost to the Serbian in the final at Melbourne Park last year, also had to work hard against an Australian on an adjacent court during the evening program.
Tsitsipas had match points in the fourth set, then had to save four set points to force the tiebreaker. The Greek finally won the match 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2 and 7-6 (4) against Jordan Thompson. He will face Frenchman Luca Van Assche, 79, in the third round.e in the world.
Earlier in the day, Italian Jannik Sinner defeated Jesper de Jong 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in the second round.
This match took place at Margaret Court Arena, the third stadium located at Melbourne Park which has a retractable roof. That’s because the rain came to play spoilsport during the day’s program.
Sinner will face Argentinian Sebastian Baez, 26, in the next rounde top seed of the tournament. The latter obtained his ticket for the third round after having difficulty disposed of the Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 and 6-4.
Elsewhere, American Ben Shelton, who was a semi-finalist at the US Open last year, continued his journey after defeating local favorite Chris O’Connell 6-4, 6-1, 3-6 and 7-6 (5).
Shelton, the 16e seeded, got a few match points during the 12the game of the fourth inning, but he could not seal the outcome of the match. He had to wait until he got two more in the tiebreaker before getting his ticket to the next round.
Shelton, who reached the quarter-finals in Australia in his first appearance last year, said he enjoyed the energy the crowd gave O’Connell, and added that he would probably hear in in his sleep the chants “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi”.
On the other hand, the highest ranked Australian player in the main draw, Alex de Minaur (10e), had the ascendancy over Matteo Arnaldi (41e) 6-3, 6-0 and 6-3. De Minaur will face Flavio Cobolli in the next round, a qualified player who beat Pavel Kotov 7-5, 6-3, 5-7 and 6-2.
Taylor Fritz, #12e top seed in the tournament, also advanced to the third round, as fifth seed Andrey Rublev ousted American Christopher Eubanks 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.