Novak Djokovic came close to crashing out of the French Open on Thursday–but not because of anything quarterfinal opponent Tomas Berdych did.
After failing to convert a break point at 1-0 in the third set, Djokovic flung his racket behind him in the direction of a linesman. Had the linesman failed to move out of the way, the racket certainly would have crashed right into him–possibly resulting in a disqualification of the world No. 1.
— The Grandstand (@TennGrand) June 2, 2016
Apparently the original Djokovic racket toss tweet video was deleted, but some bootlegging recovered it. #RG16 pic.twitter.com/JVirYWICrw
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) June 2, 2016
“I threw a racket on the ground and it slipped and almost hit the line umpire,” Djokovic commented. “I was lucky there. That’s all.”
“I mean, if he would (have) hit the [linesman], it would be over,” Berdych added. “If not, then it’s just a broken racket. That’s it. Simple warning. Simple as that.”
It ended up being nothing more than a close call–not even a broken racket, as Berdych suggested–and Djokovic eventually finished off the eighth-ranked Czech 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. The top-seeded Serb will face Dominic Thiem during semifinal action on Friday.
[polldaddy poll=9435377]
Leave a Reply