The World no 1 Novak Djokovic was disqualified from the US Open upon striking the Line judge with the ball in the forth round of US Open on Sunday, he was faced against Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta.
It was in the first round of the set itself when Rablo Busta served at 4-5 and lead the game point by 0-40 which could have seen him having the first set to himself. The frustration grew for the Serbian in the moment and he swatted the ball behind the court hard, inadvertently hitting the female line judge in the throat.
The line Judge was in pain and the fell to the ground, a horrified Djokovic ran to her and apologised for the same. Tournament Referee Soeren Friemel came out on the Arthur Ashe stadium and spoke to the chair umpire Aurelie Tourte and Anreas Egli, the Grand slam supervisor, before having a long chat with the 33-year old Serb and three time US Open winner.
Djkovic clearly made his point that he had no intention to hit the official and was overheard saying, ” she doesn’t have to go hospital for this”. after a long 12 minutes of stating his defence Djokovic’s fate was sealed.
The Grand Slam rules state: “Players shall not at any time physically abuse any official, opponent, spectator or other person within the precincts of the tournament site.”The referee, in consultation with the Grand Slam chief of supervisors may declare a default for either a single violation of this code.”
He later posted an apology on Instagram: “This whole situation has left me really sad and empty… I‘m extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong.
“As for the disqualification, I need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my growth and evolution as a player and human being. I apologise to the @usopen tournament and everyone associated for my behaviour.”
The Serbian has 17 Grand slam title to his name and was inching closer to Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The Swiz star Federer leads the line with 20 Grand slams followed by Nadal with 19. It was a shocking end to the hopes of the Serbian to win his 18th Grand slam title.
The title is there for to be won with Nadal not travelling to New York and Federer is just recovering from a knee injury. And the recent turn of events saw world no 1 exiting the US Open making the tournament open wide for a underdog to go on and win it.