Djokovic Was DQ’d From The US Open After Nearly Lodging A Tennis Ball In A Line Judge’s Throat
If you read this blog, you know that Novak Djokovic was the overwhelming favorite to win the Men’s US Open, which is now entering the quarterfinals. I wrote earlier in the week that it would take something extraordinary for Djokovic to not lift the trophy at the end of the tournament.
Welp, that something extraordinary happened today.
In the first set of his match against the Spaniard Pavlo Carreno-Busta, he lost a tough game to go down 6-5 in the first set. In his frustration, he took a ball out of his pocket and smacked it. Unfortunately for Djokovic (who wasn’t looking and had no malicious intent), the ball flew and struck a line judge right in the throat.
It didn’t seem as though he hit it as hard as he could, but the ball struck the line judge (who just so happened to be a middle-aged women) in a horrible position that left her incapacitated on her side on the court. The line judge had to be carried out, and Djokovic, who had already been warned earlier in the set for bad behavior, was disqualified from the tournament as the ref ruled that he had to be defaulted.
Uh, yeah. I’d say nearly slicing a judge’s throat is grounds for disqualification.
To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve seen players default, but only due to injuries, or refusal to play. For the top player in the world to be disqualified after a freak accident where he almost decapitates a referee in a frickin major is unheard of. It’s like if Patrick Mahomes was ejected from a Super Bowl after an incomplete pass hit a ref or knocked him out.
Obviously, our sympathy goes out to the line judge, and I hope she’s able to make a full and speedy recovery from the incident, but she has now become a part of tennis lore. And once she does make a full recovery, we’ll be able to laugh at this video and how Djoker got her right in the neck. For now, this will go down as the U.S. Open where Nadal and Federer sat out and Djokovic got dq’ed for almost killing a line judge. Truly crazy stuff.
