Roddick angry about booing Djokovic: "As tennis fans, you can't disrespect excellence"

Le 24/01/2025 à 21h37 par Jules Hypolite

In the latest episode of his Served podcast, Andy Roddick took time out to revisit the whistles Novak Djokovic received as he left the court after his semi-final exit.

Pissed off at the attitude of the fans who came to watch the match, Roddick didn't mince his words when giving his opinion: "It was so lame to boo someone who's won 10 times out there. We don't even know if he's coming back.

It would be a real shame if Novak's last memory, in a place where he was dominant, where we saw excellence from him, was to have been booed off the court.

I'm not telling you to agree with what he does. But he deserves to be appreciated. You'll say: 'He's done that sort of thing'. Okay, but we're entitled to disagree about everything.

He's always very friendly in the dressing room, he always says hello, he's always courteous with the other players. They all respect him.

You can disagree, but what you shouldn't do when you're a tennis fan is disrespect excellence.

When you go to a tennis tournament, you have to appreciate history. You can't be petty when someone is injured. Do you think Novak wanted to get off the court? He wanted to win the match.

Nobody has ever been so good in the face of adversity. He's done it before, he won two years ago when he was injured."

No disrespect to the talent, it’s a response to the disrespectful person that he is, quitting while the playing at a very high level. Injured beyond possibilities.? No grimacing, no limping, just looked a bit tired. He didn’t even try the painkillers that resuscitated him with Alcaraz. Come on. There was not one person in the entire stadium that thought that was gonna happen.

100 True

They boo him because he has a history of questionable injuries, and covid issues.

Well said

I normally agree or like roddicks views, but am dead against him here. Its as others said, the disrespect he showed toward the crowd that got the boos. They pay a lot of money to see the matches and not all tennis fans are well off. Djoko wasn't obviously injured in a more serious way than vs. Alc and you feel he could have played on and perhaps could have tried calling the trainer and having meds etc. The only slight sympathy I have is that he is aging and he is probably thinking about his whole season with even a minor injury. However I don't think the crowd should have had such bad press on this issue