While Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are synonymous with class and aggressiveness, respectively, Novak Djokovic is often regarded as the most intimidating player. A few big names on the ATP Tour, such as Thanasi Kokkinakis and Dominic Thiem, agreed with this narrative during a podcast conversation alongside Denis Shapovalov.
The three UTS Tour players began the segment by asking each other to name tennis players with the most “aura”. Kokkinakis instantly selected Djokovic to be his pick simply because of the fact that the latter “doesn’t lose”.
Furthermore, the Aussie star believes that Nole would transform into a scarier player if the crowd were against him.
“The worst is if, like, the crowd makes him pissed. If he gets p***ed and starts yelling at the crowd, dude, pack your bags,” Kokkinakis said.
It may seem like the crowd is energizing the player they are supporting by booing Djokovic. But Thiem and Shapovalov agreed with their co-host – the Serbian superstar feeds off the crowd’s hostility to unleash his true potential.
“No, but that’s so bad. That’s, like, please, crowd, please,” Thiem said, before Shapovalov added, “Don’t p*** him off.”
View this post on Instagram
There have been numerous instances across his career when the fans in the stands have crossed certain lines and flat-out disrespected Djoko. A majority of these stories ended with the Belgrade native winning the match and teaching the crowd a lesson.
An example of this occurred not too long ago. During his fourth-round clash at Wimbledon 2024, a section of the crowd was cheering for Holger Rune throughout the match. Undeterred by the crowd sentiment, Djoko used it in his favor to destroy Rune 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
Shapovalov reveals being intimidated by Roger Federer
Denis Shapovalov had a slightly different answer than Thanasi Kokkinakis. The Canadian continues to be intimidated by Roger Federer to this day.
“Roger. To me, like, still, to this day, I saw Roger in the Halle last year. I started to panic a little bit,” Shapovalov said.
From what it seems, Shapo becomes nervous when meeting Federer. But on the court, he narrated a story about how an unwell Djokovic defeated him 6-3, 6-4 at the Rolex Paris Masters 2019.
“I heard rumors that he’s been sick all week, you know? I’m like ‘dude, I’ve got him. I’m playing the best tennis in my life. Like, the guy’s not feeling good. He’s not 100%’… This is my chance… No chance. No chance. Guy was toying with me.”
Going into the contest, the southpaw wasn’t intimidated by his opponent. In fact, he remained extremely confident about his chances of winning the Masters 1000 title. However, he soon learned an invaluable lesson – never count Djokovic out.
