‘Now I look like the bad guy,’ says Novak Djokovic after struggling with heckler.

Djokovic expresses his displeasure for what happened during his match in Melbourne

Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic had a rather tough time when playing his second-round match against Enzo Couacaud at the Australian Open. The Serbian champion has been struggling with a hamstring injury that has been hampering his ambition to win the Australian Open for the 10th time. Novak won 6-1 6-75 6-2 6-0, but things got rather uncomfortable also for a presence of a heckler that was not managed probably by the tournament organization.

During the press conference that followed the match, Novak Djokovic explained why he was so upset. He said that that drunken fan crossed the line too many times.

“What I have a problem with is when somebody’s crossing the line – numerous times. From the very beginning, guys that were under the influence of alcohol, it was obvious, and I was grabbing my towel very close to them, particularly one guy, you heard his voice various times tonight, was insulting me and provoking me and saying things that were not respectful at all,” said Novak.

When Djokovic confirmed that the she was not pleased for the fact that the words no action against the hekler:

“So I tolerated for over one and a half hours, almost two hours. I was giving signs to the chair umpire, looking at the chair umpire looking at the guy. I think the chair umpire, supervisor, whoever is responsible for handling the crowd, should have done a bit more and anticipated me coming out to the chair umpire and looking like a bad guy because this is how I’m going to look like now in the media, in the public, because I’m the guy that kicked out some other guy.

“I feel like it’s unnecessary for me or any other player to be put in this position after long time that match is already going, during of the match has already been two hours. It’s plenty of time for supervisor, chair umpire, whoever is responsible, to react before a player,” he added.

Djokovic at the Australian Open, ranking, and results in 2023

Novak Djokovic

7 - 2win/loss

Hard
7-2
37 year old
LWWWWWLWW
2025 Highlights

Now the world no.5, Djokovic has an overall 7-0 record in 2023. Djokovic is currently having a run at the Australian Open where he defeated the world no.75 Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3 6-4 6-0 and the world no.191 Enzo Couacaud 6-1 6-75 6-2 6-0.

Novak Djokovic will square off with the world no.28 Grigor Dimitrov in the 3rd round. Their current head to head is 9-1 for Djokovic.

Novak has won 1 title in 2023 in Adelaide.

The Serbian 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)

Djokovic
Australian Open
Djokovic's Record
Djokovic
Projected
Draw