Novak Djokovic was booed by the crowd as he fumed at the umpire and his own coaching team at Roland Garros during his men’s singles Olympics semi-final victory over Italian Lorenzo Musetti on Friday evening.
The Serbian has split opinions amongst tennis fans throughout his stellar career and fumed when he was hit with a second time violation during the Olympic clash.
Djokovic lost his first serve as a result of the violation and stormed towards the umpire to complain after losing the subsequent follow-up point.
An X-rated exchange followed and the 37-year-old was then struck with a code violation for his language before ending the exchange saying ‘You’re trying to do your job, you know how it is on court right? You recognise the right moment to do it,’
He then walked back to the baseline grinning with annoyance, evidently due to the way his violations had been publicly issued by the match umpire.
Novak Djokovic was booed by the crowd as he fumed at the umpire and his own coaching team in Friday’s semi-final Olympics win
Djokovic was hit with both a time and code violation by the umpire during the match
The 37-year-old also vented his anger towards hiw own coaching team at Roland Garros
The crowd booed and whistled throughout the entire exchange with the eventual winner of the tie one set up and tying one game apiece in the second.
However, when Musetti then broke Djokovic’s serve as the game got back underway, the tennis legend turned and lost his temper with his own coaching box sat in the stands.
The brief and furious interaction gave Djokovic the chance to vent his anger and soon turned his attention back to the match following his outburst.
He went on to dominate the second set, winning 6-2, and setting up a final showdown with Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in a repeat of last month’s Wimbledon final that he lost.
Djokovic has never made it to an Olympic final, despite his individual success, and revealed it was a huge relief to be in with a shot at winning a gold medal on Sunday.
Djokovic eventually calmed down to come through the match in dominant fashion
Djokovic has reached an Olympic final for the first time where he will play Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz
‘It’s a huge relief because I never got to the Olympics finals, even though I played really well I thought at Olympic Games,’ he said.
‘Just to secure a higher medal for the first time for my country, whatever happens on Sunday, it’s huge pride and honour and happiness and that’s why I celebrated the way I did.
‘Of course I’m going to go for gold on Sunday, there’s no doubt about it, but this is a big deal.’
Djokovic has frequently engaged with crowds throughout his serial Grand Slam winning years and only recently hit out at supporters inside Wimbledon during his run to the final where he was similarly booed.
