Novak Djokovic’s father Srdjan Djokovic claimed that fans cannot accept someone from a poor country doing good in a rich man’s sport.
Srdjan Djokovic, Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic’s father slammed the Australian Open final supporters saying he disapproved of the attitude of the crowd who came to watch the game on Tuesday.
A visibly unhappy Srdjan was of the opinion that despite his son’s victory – a record 8th one in Australia, the behaviour of the supporters during the final against Austrian Dominic Thiem was really disrespectful.
Novak Djokovic is the only player in the Open Era to win the 8 titles in Australia, however, the crowd had other plans as they stood by his opponent Thiem, who, meanwhile, was playing his maiden Australian Open final.
Most of the crowd supported Thiem, especially when the Austrian was close to victory in the fourth set.
“The seven-time Australian Open champion is playing at Centre Court, where he hasn’t lost a single game, against any Austrian in the final and the fans are cheering on the Austrian – imagine this disrespect for Novak,” Srdjan said.
“Tennis is a sport for rich people”
Djokovic’s father Srdjan further went on to claim that fans cannot accept someone from a poor country doing good in a rich man’s sport.
“Tennis is a sport for rich people and they cannot accept that someone from poor and small Serbia is the best tennis player of the past was ten years,” Srdjan opined.
Djokovic, who won his 17th Grand Slam, received a prize money of €2.5million following his Australian Open victory. The Serbian will return to Dubai by the end of February.
Djokovic had earlier helped his home country Serbia win its first title at the 2020 ATP Cup by claiming six victories, which included wins over Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the semi-final and Spain’s Rafael Nadal in the final respectively
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