Novak Djokovic’s father, Srdan, is pictured being greeted enthusiastically by his son’s supporters and then he appears to say something encouraging before continuing. Srdan was particularly outspoken when his son was deported last year after being held because he was unvaccinated, accusing the Australian government of attempting to “assassinate” his famous child.
Since arriving in Australia, the player has made a valiant effort to stay out of the spotlight in order to concentrate on his title defense as he gets ready to play American Tommy Paul in the semi-final on Friday. Unknowingly or not, he was seen on Wednesday signing something for a man who was earlier sporting a “Z” T-shirt, which has since evolved into the de facto symbol of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Overall, the fans didn’t appreciate what happened. One fan even proposed to kick Djokovic’s father out of Australia and leave alone Novak. Another one slammed Djokovic’s family calling it “disgraceful” for the sport.
Another fan asks Novak to “ban” his father from attending his matches. Another fan, slammed sports journalists for aiming at Djokovic.
my god what did this family do to our sport? This is just disgraceful
— biedrowski 🐾 (@PawelBiedrowski) January 26, 2023
either Novak bans his dad from attending any matches or he is disqualified.
— Jean Papillon (@JeanPapillon8) January 26, 2023
1/2 I think you are deliberately not seeing the point here. A sportswriter like Ben not finding *anything* to write about a player in a tournament, but covering his Dad standing next to a fan, shows his bias. As to your comments about India, most Indians, self included, abhor ..
— Rishabh S Bhatia (@RishabhSB1) January 26, 2023
Djokovic at the Australian Open, ranking, and results in 2023
Now ranked no.5, Djokovic has managed to achieve a composed 10-0 win-loss record in 2023. The Serbian is now competing at the Australian Open where he beat the world no.75 Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3 6-4 6-0, the world no.191 Enzo Couacaud 6-1 6-75 6-2 6-0, the world no.28 Grigor Dimitrov 7-67 6-3 6-4, the world no.24 Alex De Minaur 6-2 6-1 6-2 and the world no.6 Andrey Rublev 6-1 6-2 6-4.
Novak Djokovic will come up against the world no.35 Tommy Paul in the semifinal. In the past, they have never played each other till now on the main tour.
Djokovic has won 1 title in 2023 in Adelaide.
Djokovic won 92 titles in his career: 49 on hard courts, 18 on clay courts, 17 on indoor courts and 8 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MCPYdm8kZM