Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka are both great personalities of our sport. The Japanese sensation caused a rather big (and constructive) mayhem after refusing to play other Western & Southern Open semifinals on Thursday as a protest toward the widespread racism in the US. Novak Djokovic is always more than happy to help the people in need and the important causes, but he got rather upset about the unilateral decision from the ATP to suspend the matches without even consulting the players.
According to reports, Novak didn’t express any aversion for Naomi’s stance, but for the fact that players were not taken into consideration when the decision was made.
According to the famous recruitment letter sent from Djokovic to the other players to form the Professional Tennis Players Association, Novak commented:
“For example, last night ATP CEO decided in 5min that they will cancel competition play for today. No one has reached out to me or any other player who is still competing in the tournament. I find that very disrespectful and wrong.”
Some other players like Tsitsipas were also surprised on how the decision was made as he learned about it only on a WhatsApp group. That was quite odd also because since the semifinals were postponed, at least in the case of the players involved in singles there were only the 4 semifinalists that had to be consulted.
Supporting Djokovic’s idea (but probably not the timing), many players were upset for the fact that they were left in the dark during the months that followed the beginning of global lockdown. Indeed, these are not proper ways to communicate with the main stakeholders.
From Djokovic’s recruitment letter to the players for PTPA. As reported here on Friday, he wasn’t happy about the Osaka-led suspension of play on Thursday pic.twitter.com/Tn0enDJfuN
— Simon Briggs (@simonrbriggs) August 30, 2020
Novak Djokovic in 2020
Ranked no.1, Novak played his last match on the 29th of August when he overcame Milos Raonic 1-6 6-3 6-4 in the final in New York to win his 80th career title.
Currently, this year Novak has a 23-0 win-loss record. Novak conquered 3 titles in 2020 at the Australian Open, in Dubai and in New York.
Naomi Osaka in 2020
At the moment ranked no.10, the Japanese was supposed to play on the 29th of August. However, she conceded a walk over to Victoria Azarenka in the final in New York.
Naomi Osaka’s latest run in New Yorkwas the best achievement of her season.
Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka |
| Embed from Getty Images |
