Novak Djokovic is through to the quarterfinal of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia following a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Cameron Norrie on Tuesday afternoon.
It was a straightforward scoreline, although there was some entertainment along the way. At one point Norrie blasted an overhead right at Djokovic after the top-seeded Serb had turned around to all but concede the point. The Brit also took a medical timeout before his opponent served for the match and –according to Djokovic–had too many outlandish “come ons” throughout.
“I did watch the replay when he hit me,” Djokovic said during his press conference. Yeah, maybe you could say he didn’t hit me deliberately. I don’t know if he saw me. I mean…you can always see where the player is positioned on the court. The ball was super slow and super close to the net. I just turned around because the point was over for me.
“It was not so much maybe about that, but it was maybe a combination of things. From the very beginning, I don’t know, he was doing all the things that were allowed. He’s allowed to take a medical timeout. He’s allowed to hit a player. He’s allowed to say ‘come on’ in the face more or less every single point from basically first game. Those are the things that we players know in the locker room it’s not fair play; it’s not how we treat each other. But, again, it’s allowed, so….
“I got along with Cameron really well all these years that he’s been on the tour. Practiced with each other. He’s very nice guy off the court, so I don’t understand this kind of attitude on the court, to be honest. But it is what it is. He brought the fire, and I responded to that. I’m not going to allow someone behaving like this just bending my head. I’m going to respond to that.
“That’s all it is. What happens on the court, we leave it on the court, and we move on.”
Djokovic is moving on to face Holger Rune on Wednesday. Rune advanced with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 defeat of Alexei Popyrin that required more than three hours. Djokovic and Rune are tied at 1-1 in the head-to-head series after most recently colliding at the 2022 Paris Masters, where the 20-year-old Dane triumphed 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the final.
quick handshake, too
The Southafrican/Kiwi/British citizen almost succeeded in unsettling Nole when he served for the match, Nole was 0:30 and struggled to served it out.
Everything Nole said is correct, particularly when CN out of nowhere called for MT after was broken and Nole was about to serve for the match, and I loved Noleās āhandshakeā at the end, though Nole is right, what happens on the court stays on the court.
Rune is next, Nole is still very much finding his rhythm, weather is cold, rainy and awful, playing day match all points to Runeās win.