Mcenroe warns Djokovic that he may never live down ‘rookie error
● World No 1 vows to learn lesson from US Open default after ball hit line-judge
John McEnroe has warned Novak Djokovic he will have to face up to being the “bad guy” for the rest of his career after the world No 1 was defaulted from the US Open for striking a ball which hit a line-judge.
McEnroe, himself no stranger to grand slam defaults, accused Djokovic of a “rookie mistake” after the incident, which saw him tossed out of the tournament towards the end of his first set against Pablo Carreno Busta.
The Serb tweeted an apology hours later but, having already courted controversy this year by staging an ill-fated tournament amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mcenroe believes Djokovic will struggle to live the incident down.
McEnro e told ESPN: “The pressure just got to him, I think. A lot’s been going on off the court, it’s obviously affected him and now whether he likes it or not he’s going to be the bad guy for the rest of his career.
“It was a rookie mistake made by him to hit a ball back where he wasn’t even looking where he was hitting it. He’s been there and done that, and certainly I know from some experience that you’ve got to be careful out there.”
McEnroe was the first player to be defaulted from a grand slam tournament at the 1990 Australian Open, after picking up a series of code violations during his match against Mikael Pernfors. And Mcenroe admitted he wished there could have been some other solution that would have enabled Djokovic to avoid being defaulted for the incident.
“I’d like to tell you I disagree with it and I’d like to find a different way to continue to play – that would obviously have been prefaced by whether or not the lines woman’ s OK ,” added Mcenroe.
“You’d like to at least think because it was obviously not intentional, that you try to figure out a way to keep an alltime great player going after history on the court but I get that the rules state you’ve got to treat everyone the same.”
The top seed and 17- time grand slam champion had just dropped serve to trail his Spanish opponent 6-5 in the first set of their four th-round match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Djokovic, who had missed three set points at 5-4 before hurting his shoulder in a fall, hit a ball behind him without looking that struck a female line judge in the throat.
The 33- year-old wrote on Instagram: “This whole situation has left me really sad and empty. I checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling OK. I‘m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong.”
The line judge collapsed to the court and could be heard gas ping for air as Djokovic rushed over to check on her condition.
Djokovic pleaded his case to tournament referee So eren Friemel and grand slam supervisor Andreas Egli, but the officials’ mind was made up.
He subsequently accepted the decision, saying in his statement: “I need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my grow th and evolution as a player and human being.
“I apologise to the@ u sopen tournament and everyone associated for my behaviour. I’m very grateful to my team and family for being my rock support, and my fans for always being there with me. Thank you and I’m so sorry.”
Meanwhile, Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski’s US Open run ended with a quarter-final loss to Bruno Soares and Mate Pavic in the men’s doubles.
Murray won the title with S oares four years ago but it was the Brazilian who had the last laugh here last night in a 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory.
Joe Salisbury, playing with American Rajeev Ram, as now the only British player left.