No one could stop Novak Djokovic from winning his 18th Grand Slam title at the US Open, if not himself.

A gesture of humor disqualified the world number 1, depriving him of the cup.

End of the first set against Pablo Carreno (27th).

A ball hit by the Serbian without looking down the court will hit a linesman in the throat.

The judge screams and collapses, Djokovic rushes towards her.

She gets up, he goes to sit down.

But the rules are final: any player guilty of this type of gesture, even involuntarily, is excluded.

This whole situation has left me really sad and empty.

I checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling ok.

I'm extremely sorry to have caused her such stress.

So unintended.

So… https://t.co/UL4hWEirWL

- Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) September 6, 2020

"Sad and empty"

"I apologize to the US Open and to all those affected by my behavior (...) I'm sorry," wrote the tournament favorite who left the stadium without going to a press conference.

“I'm really sad and drained after this story. I checked in with the linesman and the tournament told me that thank God she's feeling good. I'm extremely sorry I caused her so much. stress. It was completely unintentional. It was absolutely bad, "continues the Serbian.

“As for my disqualification, I have to do an introspection and work on my disappointment in order to learn a lesson from it to move forward and develop myself as a tennis player and as a human being,” he concludes.

"Because he was disqualified, Djokovic will lose all the ATP points won at the US Open [in this case ... none, Editor's note] and will receive a fine for the amount of his 'prize money' in addition to any other fine that may be decided on the basis of the incident, "the USTA said.

"It's really bad luck"

The fine should be even higher by his decision to leave the stadium immediately without giving the mandatory press conference.

Carreno didn't see anything.

"I was celebrating my break with my coach," he explained, confirming the obvious: Djokovic had not "intentionally" reached the linesman.

Grand Slam disqualifications are rare.

But that of John McEnroe at the Australian Open 1990 had already marked the spirits.

Djokovic had had a first gesture of temper a few points before, when he had violently struck a ball against a railing.

His nerves were strained as he led 5-4 and had three balls to win the set 6-4 on Carreno's serve, but the Spaniard managed to save them and tie it at 5-5.

And the Serbian lost his throw-in in the process, which provoked his unfortunate gesture.

"It's really bad luck, commented Alexander Zverev, who was at the press conference at the same time. There is a rule for that. I think the supervisor is doing his job. But it's really bad luck for Novak. . "

In an empty stadium due to the closed session, the likelihood of Djokovic's ball hitting someone was particularly low.

Caught under pressure

As often, Nick Kyrgios was one of the first to react in a scathing tweet.

"Put me in the Djoker's shoes in this incident: after accidentally hitting a bullet-catcher in the throat, how many years would I have been banned?" Wrote the Australian with spectacular anger.

He is one of the players who preferred not to come to New York.

In the absence of his main rivals Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, the Serbian who is considered the best hard player and who had been undefeated since the start of the year with 26 wins in as many matches, seemed on track to win his 18th Grand Slam title.

“I think he got caught under the pressure,” four-time tournament winner John McEnroe commented on ESPN. “Now, whether he likes it or not, he's going to be the bad guy for the rest of his career.

The US Open 2020 will therefore be the first Major to have a winner other than one of the members of the Big 3 since its 2016 edition won by Stan Wawrinka.

More so, there will be in New York this year a brand new Grand Slam winner.

With AFP

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