Novak Djokovic blasted the Wimbledon crowd after his win over Holger Rune for being, in his mind, disrespectful, but the Danish player defended them.
At one point in their fourth-round match at SW19, the crowd started chanting Rune’s name, trying to support him. Djokovic took offense to that, not because they were supporting his opponent, but because of how they were doing it.
He even mocked the crowd after winning the second set and addressed the crowd harshly after the match. Many, including the interviewer on the court, when the Serbian complained, have pointed out that Djokovic might have misheard the chants for boos which is what Rune argued after the match as well.
“It all started at US Open the first time we played each other.. when the crowd chanted my name and it sounded a little bit like ‘boo…’ then we played each other many more times, more like in Italy and France where they don’t pronounce my name the same way.”
“Yeah, now we’re in England. If you don’t know what was happening, probably it sounded like ‘boo.’ But… if we all know what happened.. it was my name.”
We don’t know whether the fans were really just supporting the Danish player or abusing the fact that his name, when shouted, sounded like booing, but Djokovic was certainly not happy about it.
He called the crowd disrespectful, but Rune didn’t think it greatly impacted the match. After all, Djokovic still won it relatively easily, in three sets.
“He’s played so many matches since he played me last time. If he didn’t remember, it could probably sound different for him. But I don’t think it played a massive part in the match. He was just better than me today.”
“Whether the crowd was this or that.. I think it was great support for both players to be honest. They were supporting him on good points. They were supporting me. Nice scenes on Centre Court.”
