Why Djokovic was furious with the chair umpire in Rome

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Yesterday it wasn’t a great day for Novak Djokovic. The world no.1 lost the final in Rome against Andy Murray, and he also had some arguments with the chair umpire, Damien Steiner.

Djokovic. The court required maintenance…

Nole wasn’t happy with the court that was quite heavy and muddy on the baseline. For this reason, he has wanted the chair umpire to allow few minutes to arrange the court to comment “I asked to have a little break where we would give a little time, maybe five more minutes, to people to arrange the court. The chair umpire knew that the forecast was good. There was not going to be any rain. I didn’t see any reason why we couldn’t stop.

We played on a very, very heavy court because it was raining for an hour and it was very muddy behind the baseline. In three games I literally could have twisted my ankle two or three times.

I asked him: ‘Is it necessary that somebody gets injured? It’s his decision whether or not the court is playable but to me it’s ridiculous that [in] casual shoes he comes out and just slides on the line and says, ‘OK, the court is good.’”



 

… he wanted to show me his authority

Then Djokovic wasn’t happy with a warning after he threw a racket at the beginning of the second set “I threw a racket, it bounced over the fence, and I got a warning instantly. So the chair umpire was on fire today. He really wanted to show his authority to me. So congratulations to him. This kind of matches are important for both players,” he added. “There is a lot at stake. When you play a rival, and of course you want to win, sometimes you get too emotional.”

Time to regroup and think about the French Open. That is an important one!