Djokovic disqualified from US Open after hitting line judge
US Open Novak Djokovic disqualified after hitting line judge
Top seed Novak Djokovic has been disqualified from his US-Open fourth-round match after accidently hitting a ball at a line judge.
Djokovic showed his frustration after losing his serve to trail 6-5 against Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta. 20th seed.
The Serbian took a ball out of his pocket and hit it behind him, striking accidently the female line judge in her throat.
After a lengthy discussion, he was defaulted by tournament officials.
A United States Tennis Association statement said “ In accordance with the Grand Slam rulebook, following his actions of intentionally hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences, the US Open Tournament referee defaulted Novak Djokovic from the 2020 US Open.
“Because he was defaulted, Djokovic will lose all ranking points earned at the US Open and will be fined the prize money won at the tournament in addition to any or all fines levied with respect of the offending incident”.
Djokovic who had not lost a single math in 2020, was the heavy favourite to win the Men’s singles title at the US Open, which is being played behind closed doors and is the first Grand Slam to take place since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 33-year-old was aiming for his 18th Grand Slam triumph to move closer to rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer who are not playing in New York in the race to finish with the most men’s major titles of all-time.
Djokovic appeared to plead his case to tournament referee Soeren Friemel and Grand Slam supervisor Andreas Egli during a long conversation at the net.
Djokovic left Flushing Meadows without doing his news conference.
Novak Djokovic consoling the line judge after accidently hitting her with a ball at 6-5 down in the first set.