Novak Djokovic’s fan club, also called NoleFam, is passionate about defending their champion player when someone says something ill about their hero. Another instance of the same took place recently on social media. The backdrop of it was the World No.1’s Monte Carlo Masters semi-final match against Casper Ruud. The Serb lost his temper many times due to the crowd deliberately distracting or booing him more so when points were being played out.
Djokovic lost the semi-final 4-6, 6-1, 4-6. During the game, the Serb was heard yelling “Shut the f*** up” to the public a few times. Now, in his defense, the crowd did make some noise that may have distracted Djokovic. And that’s probably why the umpire didn’t reprimand Djokovic for that.
But many, including Andy Roddick, weren’t happy with the fact that Novak Djokovic was given a free pass by the umpire despite the World No.1 directing an abusive rant towards the crowd. So the NoleFam targeted Roddick, calling the former World No.1 a ‘hypocrite’ for himself getting away with poor behavior on court on many instances.
Andy Roddick had also brought up Holger Rune and claimed that he received a warning from the chair umpire during his Monte Carlo Masters match against Jannik Sinner. On that instance, Rune was questioning a decision made by the umpire. But Novak Djokovic went scot-free for verbal abuse, without even getting a warning for the same.
Roddick called out Djokovic and the tennis officials for this bias separately on the Tennis Channel and on X. He was clear that Djokovic should’ve been given a warning since he was abused 4 times by the crowd. However, the NoleFam absolutely blasted Roddick online.
Having seen these comments, Andy Roddick even rushed to defend himself by saying that he was aware he got away with bad behavior.
Were the officials right in warning Holger Rune and letting Novak Djokovic go?
In Holger Rune’s case, the umpire made a wrong decision to give the Dane a time violation. Following the violation, the crowd started booing, which further threw him off his game. Rune gestured to the crowd to keep quiet without abusing in any way, and for that, he was warned for ‘unsportsmanlike’ conduct.
It was a bit too much, something that the Dane wasn’t happy about at all. Compared to that, it is true that Djokovic got off far easily. In the end, Holger Rune lost 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 3-6 to Jannik Sinner.
