Young Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz looks set to go into the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic as the crowd favourite after the Serbian appeared to mock the crowd during his semi final win over Jannik Sinner.
Up two sets to love but trailing 5-4 and facing two set points, Djokovic’s serve found the net, which led to a Sinner fan cheering.
Djokovic gave a sarcastic applause and a thumbs up. He then dug deep to serve out the game, and then looked into the crowd in the direction of the jibe and pretended to wipe away fake tears.
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Leading tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg said on Twitter watching Djokovic “running out of f—s to give about the Centre Court crowd is a joy to behold, and long overdue”.
Only 20 minutes or so later, the match was over. Djokovic through to his 35th grand slam singles final with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win.
Earlier, Djokovic was penalised a point for hindrance when he let out a loud grunt after playing a shot, with the ball still in play.
Djokovic said the controversial call “could have changed the course of the match”.
Watch Wimbledon 2023 live and free on 9now. Alternatively, you can stream every match live, ad-free and on demand on Stan Sport, with centre court in 4K UHD.
“I felt really nervous after that call. It’s never happened to me, I don’t normally have an extended grunt,” he said.
“Maybe it was an echo from the roof or something like this.”
“I don’t actually feel like I was causing any hindrance to my opponent, but OK. But it’s a call I have to respect.
“It was a very stressful game for me to survive and to kind of storm through. It was super important.”
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