MORE PLAYERS NEED TO TELL THE CROWD TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
YOU PUT YOURSELF AT #3 NOT THE CROWD
GO NOLE
GO NOLE
GO NOLE
GO NOLE
GO NOLE
Djokovic Confronts Crowd in Roddick Victory
Friday, September 5, 2008
By Matt Cronin
Novak Djokovic was briefly the toast of New York last year with his hilarious impersonations of other players, including Maria Sharapova, but his life came full circle after his 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) victory over top American Andy Roddick on Thursday night.
After Tommy Robredo accused the 2007 US Open finalist of exaggerating his injuries after his five-set victory over the Spaniard on Tuesday, Roddick joked that the much put-upon Djokovic's injuries and illnesses seemed endless.
“A back and a hip? And a cramp? Bird flu... anthrax... SARS... common cough and cold?” Roddick said with a smile.
But Djokovic wasn’t aware that Roddick only said it in jest, and after pulling off an amazing comeback over the No. 8 seed in the fourth set, when he broke the hard-charging American back to 5-5 with a perfect topspin lob and then played an amazingly resourceful tiebreaker to gain the semifinals against Roger Federer, Djokovic hit out at Roddick and the crowd during his on-court interview. The fans rained boos down upon the same man they laughed with in 2007.
"I am really happy playing against Roddick on his court and in his city in his favorite tournament, so to win against him is a huge effort. That's not nice, anyhow, to say in front of this crowd that I have 16 injuries and I am faking it. I have nothing against anybody. Andy was saying that I have 16 injuries in the last match, so obviously I don't, right? Like it or not, it's like that. They (the crowd) are already against me because they think I am faking everything, so sorry."
Later, Roddick, who had doubled faulted twice to be broken back to 5-5 in the fourth set before Djokovic passed him on break point, took part of the blame for what was clearly a misunderstanding. While the Serbian definitely has developed a reputation for calling the trainer too frequently, retiring from too many matches, and dragging himself around the court as if he’s seriously injured, even when he’s winning, Roddick said he meant no harm.
“Here's the deal: I mean, if you guys haven't ever seen me joke in a press conference, I'd be shocked, OK?" Roddick said. “It was completely meant in jest. I figure if you're going to joke and imitate other people and do the whole deal, then you should take it. Listen, if someone makes fun of me, I'm most likely going to laugh. If I'm over the line, I'm going to come in here and say I was ridiculous. And I was wrong. I've been the worst of it in the past. I promise you that if somebody makes a joke about it, I'll probably laugh. I'm sorry he took it that way. I don't think I was over the line. It wasn't my intention, and I'm sorry he felt that way. Maybe I did him a favor tonight… I should know better. But I joke all the time. I don't think anybody in their right mind takes me serious. I think it's very clear when I give a serious answer and when I don't give a serious answer.
“Maybe I should know better, but in my eyes it's an innocent comment. I felt that most people found it funny, and I tried to build it up. I'm saying, I'm 3, he's 8. It's straightforward. I'm trying to build it up like I'm the favorite. I said listen, if you want to go last 10 days or go the last 10 months, he's been the best hard-court player. I'm throwing truthful things the whole time. If someone wants to focus in on that and use it, then by all means, but especially in Novak's case, if you're going to dish out all the stuff, then be able to take it with a smile, is the only part that I don't quite agree with.”
Despite his tremendous victory, Djokovic came to his press conference looking down-right miserable. Some other players in the locker room, specifically Federer, didn’t warm to his imitations last year, and this year, he’s mostly stopped.
But that hasn’t completely cleaned up his reputation as someone who is too boastful. After he won the Australian Open, taking Federer out in the semis, his mother Dijana said in reference to Federer and her son, “The king is dead. Long live the king.”
Moreover, there are some players who believe he takes too long to serve, incessantly bouncing the ball, and with Robredo saying that he was taking medical timeouts merely to get rest, Djokovic felt like his reputation was being stained.
“I had a very, very tough day yesterday,” he said. “Physically, I was feeling very exhausted and very empty. I wasn't able to practice. One of the reasons was physically, and the other reason was that I just mentally had a lot of pressure. Unfortunately, Andy made a statement ‑‑ I don't think it was intentional. He made a joke, and it was a misunderstanding, so I don't blame it on him. OK. I did react on the court. Maybe I exaggerated and reacted bad in that moment. No, I apologize if I reacted like that. But this was just impulsive.
“I had a lot of emotions in last two days. It's not nice when you get that from media all around the world and from players, and I never needed to make any excuses in the press. I know that what I'm doing is right, that I have all the rights to take the medical timeout, that I'm doing it just for the purpose to make my physical condition better, and just that I continue playing better. I never made medical timeout because I wanted to distract the opponent or make the result look worse. I just took the medicals to help me out.
“Maybe the people think that I'm exaggerating with these things, but it's nothing bad. I twist my ankle, I feel bad. I get the pain in the back. I just want to make it right. Andy was always nice to me when I got to the tour, so this was just a clear misunderstanding.”
When he came on tour, Djokovic was one the most accessible and easy-going players, but as he’s risen to the top of the game, he’s lost some of his appeal, as it’s much easier to be the class clown when you are a mid-ranked up-and-comer and a lot more difficult when you are chasing the world’s top spot. A lot more folks are paying attention to him, and if they feel he’s mocking them, some will take umbrage. That’s why he’s no longer doing impersonations during tournaments.
“It's different,” he said. “Once you win the Grand Slam title and win a couple more major events, you get more attention from everybody, and it's logical. I don't want to make any impersonations any more. It's not that I don't want to. This is something that people will get wrong. And this is exactly the reason, and this is exactly the situation I don't want to be in -- fighting with people, with the press, and this is absolutely not me.
"And that's one of the reasons why I stopped doing this. I mean everybody is different. Everybody has different character, different personality and different way of seeing things, on and off the court. I always try to enjoy my life as much as I can, on the court and off the court. People who follow my career know that. And it was all from the positive side of life and just bringing the smiles on the people's faces. Not really insulting anybody. It just turned around now.”
While he's about as mentally tough of a younger player as the tour has seen in the past few years, Djokovic is still 21 and has some growing up to do. He copped to his mistake, as did Roddick, but whether he can recover in time to bring out his best against Federer on Saturday is questionable.
Even though he wants to make good with the crowd, he might have lost them on Thursday, and outside of the few hundred Serbian fans who cheered him on (or was it 1,000?), he’s all but handed over the rest of the 23,000 to Federer.
“Nothing against the crowd,” Djokovic said. “The crowd here in New York, at least I get that feeling, liked me last year, and, really, I had such a fun time last year. In most of the matches I played, I have not enough words to thank them. I just don't want this to happen in a bad way. We had this connection, and this year, of course, this match, I mean, I didn't expect the crowd would be behind me. It's obviously that they will be for the home player and for Andy, you know -- their biggest hope to win the US Open. I felt bad in the end."
If you enjoyed this post, other posts and enjoy reading LA*SURFPUNK HOLLYWOOD--Please take a moment to make a donation to keep this blog alive!!! You can click the donate button at the top right of the page. We thank you!!
Read more of my blog by clicking the title or subject listings on the right.
Email friends of my postings with the EMAIL icon at the bottom of each post.
And as always, feel free to comment.
Member of the Boxxet Network of Blogs, Videos and Photos
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment