By U.B. Acharya

Despite possessing all important records in tennis, Novak Djokovic is disliked by most tennis fans and experts. In fact, he is hated by many, who are mostly Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s fans. Recently some experts have analysed this situation and come up with a few reasons. These are summarised below:

1. Djokovic’s country Serbia was involved in an ethnic war against its neighbour Kosovo in late 1990s. The Western world treated it as genocide and NATO forces bombed Belgrade day and night for four months. In fact, young Novak was a victim rather than the perpetrator. Yet he is being penalised even today.

2. In 1999 he was the best player in Europe below the age group of 12. At that time UK was desperately looking for a future Wimbledon Champion from their own country (not having had a Champion for over 60 years) and offered Novak’s father Srdjan UK citizenship. They offered a job for the father and free coaching to the young son. While Srdjan was keen, his wife put her foot down saying that her son will play only for his country of birth. So, it was yet another minus point for Novak in the eyes of British tennis establishment.

3. In Grand Slam events, the Wednesday prior to the actual tournament is treated as a fun day when both men and ladies play together in exhibition matches. In one US Open, the new comer,18-year-old Novak mimicked Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal of their mannerism. While Sharapova took it in her stride other two and their fans did not appreciate this.

4. Initially Djokovic was conceding walkover to his opponents quite frequently because he was getting tired (or was mentally weak). Federer said it was a “joke” meaning he had no business to be playing competitive tennis.

5. By the time Djokovic came into prominence, Federer and Nadal had already built a huge fan base. But when Djokovic started beating them, not only these two Champions found this uncomfortable, but also their fans bitterly disliked it and thought that he was an intruder and had no business to beat their favourites. More he won more they hated him.

6. In a Grand Slam event in 2011, after being two match points down, Djokovic won against Federer. Again in 2014, Djokovic hit an unbelievable cross court winner on Federer’s first serve on match point. In the press conference after the match, Federer remarked: “Some players have a habit of hitting a reckless shot when they know that they cannot win. He just got lucky.” Reacting to this, Djokovic’s father retorted that Federer is a great Champion but not a nice man. Though Djokovic tried to smoothen things up by saying that he had no control over what his father said and Djokovic himself has great respect for Federer, in the eyes of Federer’s fans, Djokovic was their enemy No.1.

7. Right through Djokovic’s career, he has the habit of taking medical time out or toilet break particularly when his opponents are in the ascendency. Though Djokovic says that his medical condition is genuine and it is as per the rules, his opponents like Federer, Nadal, Wawrinka, etc. do not agree. Andy Roddick mocked him by saying “He has trouble from head to toe. Oh yes, also bird flu.”

8. When he loses an important point, he often breaks his racket. He says it is to overcome his frustration but this is disliked by the spectators.

9. Djokovic had some fan base in Australia but when he overtook Roy Emerson’s record of six Australian Open titles, they also disliked him.

10. In early 2020 when the whole world was hit by COVI-19, people were asked to take vaccination but Djokovic refused to comply with this. Because of this, he had to miss several tournaments in USA and Australia. His justification was that firstly, he had contacted COVID-19 in late 2019 and was therefore immune to it, secondly, he does not want any unknown medication in his body and lastly, he is not anti-vaccination but prochoice. Though the entire tennis world condemned him, recently the makers of the vaccination, Pfizer has admitted that it had several side effects!

11. Recently Djokovic started a new association called the Professional Tennis Players’ Association mainly to help financially the lower ranked players. This was disliked by the ATP bosses as well as other top ranked players.

Should a popularity vote be taken today among the fans, there is no doubt that Djokovic would come a distant third. However, there is a slight change in the opinions of some of the experts. For example, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Patrick Mouratoglou, etc. believe that Djokovic is the GOAT of tennis. Meanwhile, the die-hard admirers of Federer like Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg believe that numbers don’t count. So be it.

What does Federer (20 Majors) say on this subject? After paying a back-handed compliment on Djokovic’s achievements, he said: “I had my time and now he has his time.” What I don’t understand is that they have played 50 times against each other and their careers have over lapped for almost 20 years. Hence, they could not be in different times.

Nadal, after paying compliments to Djokovic, has said: “He is a very intense person. He plays for victory and when he loses, he gets frustrated. I am not like that.” I believe that no player with 22 Major titles can be easy going. In fact, he is as intense as Federer or Djokovic.

How does Djokovic feel about this? Initially he craved for admiration but now he does not care and goes about winning Major titles. Meanwhile, he seems to say to the youngsters like Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner who are way behind in the title race “Catch Me If You Can.”