“Djokovic Will Never Receive Universal Adulation Like Federer!” – Fans Slam Serb For Alleged Hypocrisy on Latest Ben Shelton Comments, Echo Major Rafael Nadal View

Novak Djokovic will take on Adrian Mannarino in the Round of 16 at the Australian Open 2024 not before Saturday, January 20, 9 PM ET. While many Djokovic supporters will be delighted seeing the defending champion’s progress, a large part of the tennis community was awaiting a potential Djokovic vs Shelton clash in the competition. Recently, the World No.1 gave an interview with L’Equipe in which he slammed Ben Shelton for his disrespectful behavior in their US Open 2023 semifinal match. And yesterday, Djokovic again took a shot at Shelton indirectly by claiming that he himself was not as arrogant in his younger days.

Djokovic was exactly quoted as saying about having some sort of line not to cross between confidence and disrespect towards senior opponents –

“But there is obviously some kind of line, non-visible line, of acceptable behavior I guess towards the other player. If a player steps over that line, then obviously it starts being annoying. That’s when you react or you don’t react, whatever. It just depends.”

The most interesting part was that Novak Djokovic brought up Roger Federer too in the conversation in the post-match interview. One journalist firstly asked Djokovic to comment on a potential clash with Shelton, but the Serbian knew that at that moment, the American was knocked out by Mannarino and had a short answer to that. However, after that, to slam the 20-year-old’s behavior, he gave his own example, stating that Roger Federer did not like him at all at the start of his career.

However, these words have not gone down well with many tennis lovers and neutrals alike. They believe that it is sort of ironic and hypocritical of Djokovic out of all players to be talking about respect since they cited examples of how he himself crossed the line on many occasions since the beginning of his career. Presumably, many Roger Federer fans jumped into the debate and claimed that the 10-time Australian Open champion will never gain the universal adulation their favorite player has received.

Djokovic has also been slammed for unnecessarily dragging Federer into the conversation, claiming that it is a cheap shot at him more so when the player has already retired. Many users also mocked Djokovic by claiming Shelton too lives rent-free in his head. Here are some fan reactions from X –

How Djokovic has opened up about rivalries with Federer and Nadal after breaking their records

The Federer vs Djokovic debate continues to rumble on in the tennis world even as the 20-time Grand Slam champion quit in 2022. Recently, in an interview with a Spanish publication, Rafael Nadal said that he prefers Roger Federer over Novak Djokovic when it comes to the player who moved him the most emotionally as well as making a huge impact on him with his style of play.

It is no surprise then that Djokovic recently said in the same interview about Shelton that Federer and Nadal united against him for the first time in 2011 when the Serb openly stated that he was ready to usurp them as World No.1. The Serb believes that there can be no ‘love triangle’ in real life, accusing the duo of indirectly being insecure and fans of hyping up the Federer-Nadal rivalry more than those of his with the two of them.

In 2023, Djokovic also stated in another interview that Nadal and Federer were against joining PTPA and misunderstood him completely. He is of the belief that he respects them professionally, but could never be friends with either of them.