Novak Djokovic has been told that he “should have hit his opponent” during a controversial incident at the 2020 US Open.
The world No. 6 was famously defaulted from the tournament when he swiped a ball away in frustration and unintentionally struck a lineswoman.
The episode has been dragged up in recent days after an altercation between Zizou Bergs and Cristian Garin at the Davis Cup, which saw Garin and Chile disqualified after Bergs barged into him.
There was drama at the Davis Cup over the weekend as Belgium faced Chile in a qualifier tie. When Bergs broke to serve for the match against Garin, he charged past the net to head to his bench in celebration but floored his opponent in the process.
Garin was knocked down by Bergs and refused to continue playing, calling on the umpire to disqualify his opponent. The Belgian only received a code violation, and Garin continued to protest the official’s call.
“I’m not going to play. You don’t have the guts to disqualify him but you’ll disqualify me. I’ve never had something like this happen. You don’t have the guts. He knocked me out, I fainted,” he said.
Garin then received a warning for his tirade but carried on. He received a point penalty and a game penalty, which gave Bergs a 6-3 4-6 7-5 victory and meant the tie went to Belgium.
The Chile Tennis Federation later released a statement accusing Bergs of “attacking” their player and claiming Garin did not receive “proper” medical intervention from the doctor.
The statement said: “Despite this situation, the general referee, Mr. Carlos Ramos, from Portugal, validated the continuity of the match and urged our player to reintegrate into the game. However, not being able to do so due to dizziness and inflammation in his eye, he was disqualified.”
The incident has sparked debate in the tennis world, with many drawing similarities to Djokovic’s controversial altercation at the US Open more than four years ago.
During a fourth-round match in 2020, Djokovic grew annoyed after going a break down to Pablo Carreno Busta. He slammed a ball towards the back of the court but it struck a lineswoman and he was defaulted on the spot.
Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick has now suggested that Djokovic wouldn’t have been disqualified if he hit his opponent instead.
“I will say, had Bergs done it to an umpire, he’d have been gone. But apparently you can do it to another player and it’s fine,” the American said on his Served podcast, discussing the Davis Cup debacle.
Co-presenter Jon Wertheim added: “If Novak Djokovic taps a ball and it happens to hit a lineswoman and he says, ‘listen, I didn’t intend anything’. It doesn’t really matter what his intent is.”
Roddick replied: “Yeah, he should’ve just hit the opponent.”
The 2003 US Open champion isn’t the only player who believes there is a grey area around the disqualification rules. Former world No. 16 Nikoloz Basilashvili recently suggested that Djokovic would have received a harsher punishment in Bergs’ situation.
“If Novak had done this, he would have been disqualified for life. WTF,” he wrote on social media.
