Novak Djokovic wasn’t happy with how the Wimbledon crowd behaved in his fourth-round match at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
The Serbian player even addressed the crowd after the match, slamming them for their behaviour. He wasn’t happy that when chanting for his opponent, Holger Rune, the fans said the Dane’s name in such way that it sounded like booing.
Rune, who has experience with fans chanting for him, defended the crowd, and it seems that Roger Federer’s former coach, Ivan Ljubicic shares similar opinion, as he revealed when talking to Sky Sports Italia.
According to the 45-year-old Croatian, he heard Rune’s fans celebrate in similar way in the past, and on top of that, he thinks that it wouldn’t make sense for them to celebrate by booing, as it’s probably not something that their player would appreciate.
“I’ve heard Rune fans celebrate like this before. If they did it to annoy Nole, it’s something they’ve already done. So I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of people try to distract Nole in many different ways.”
“This is an original way, because I don’t see any logic in celebrating with a boo when a player scores a point. But he interpreted it like this, using this thing to have more concentration.”
Still, Ljubicic didn’t want to talk about the controversy that took over the headlines, but mostly about the 37-year-old’s performance on the tennis court, as he easily beat his younger opponent in straight sets.
Prior to this year’s Championships, Djokovic’s physical condition was in question, but with each match, he proved that he should be counted as one of the favorites to win at SW19 this year.
“But we have to talk about his match, that’s what I think needs to be told. Perfect tennis. If this was a test to understand the condition of his body, we can absolutely say that Novak is there.”
