Novak Djokovic’s U.S. Open disqualification has given rise to much debate

Fabiola Candal
Staff Writer/MC301

Novak Djokovic, the current world No. 1 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), gets disqualified from the US Open 2020 after hitting the line judge with a ball directly in the throat.

This was after he lost against Pablo Carreño Busta in the fourth-round match.

Before the incident, the tennis player was the first favorite to become the US Open 2020 champion.

However, this situation caused him big consequences, starting with disqualification. The communication that the US Open member gave was that he would lose all the points won until the match he got disqualified in.

The incident occurred right after Djokovic lost a point in the score and was down 6-5.

His frustration was shown when he hit a ball to the back of the court where the judges stood. It did not look intentional, but his action led to hurting the judge.

After the match, Djokovic showed his regret about the harm he caused to the line judge as well as his fans.

Even though some people showed their understanding of the situation and supported him for what he was going through, other tennis fans decided to badmouth him for the act.

It is well-known that professional tennis players tend to feel an enormous amount of pressure during their matcheses. Some tennis fans showed their frustration comparing Djokovic’s case with Serena Williams’ meltdown last year.

Back in 2018, during the same tournament, an incident occurred when Williams called an umpire ‘thief’ and ‘liar’ after the umpire called her for a foot fault.

As a consequence, she lost a point and ended up losing the match because it was the match point. She was also fined $17,000. However, she didn’t get disqualified and that is what some fans of Djokovic are shocked about.

“This is something that shouldn’t have happened, but he acted nice right after that. He ran immediately to see if the judge was okay. You can really tell it was not his intention, he would never do that intentionally,” said Lisa Wurst, a Jackson State University tennis team member.

JSU tennis team member Noelle Frenzel feels the disqualification was unfair.

“In my opinion, it was not fair because there are some people smashing rackets and breaking benches, and everything breaks, and they just receive a warning and a fine, but Djokovic got kicked out of the tournament” said Frenzel.