By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, July 17, 2023
Novak Djokovic will pay the price for hammering his Head racquet off the net post during his dramatic five-set loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.
The seven-time Wimbledon champion was hit with $8,000 in fines for smashing his stick off the side of the net post. Djokovic erupted in anger after dropping serve in the third game of the fifth set of his 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 epic defeat to the world No. 1.
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Consider that Djokovic collected a finalist check of £1,175,000, which is about $1.53 million, and it's unlikely he'll miss that 8K too much, though he did hear it from some Centre Court fans displeased with the destruction and assault on the net post.
Earlier in the match, Djokovic was hit with a time violation warning.
Seeing his Wimbledon reign slip away, Djokovic lost his grip and snapped with the smash.
Asked about the racquet abuse code violation afterward, Djokovic said it was fueled from pure frustration.
"There's no much to talk about that. Second one was frustration," Djokovic told the media. "I had break points in the second game. Yeah, just tough, tough couple of points.
"He played amazing to break my serve, which was enough to win the fifth. The first one was the time violation, so yeah. Not a great moment again, but you just kind of have to accept it."
The 23-time Grand Slam champion knew the fine was coming as chair umpire Fergus Murphy reminded both players during the coin toss that grass is a "sensitive surface" and warned both players if they tossed their racquets, it would be called.
It was the second straight match Djokovic clashed with the chair umpire.
In the second set of his semifinal victory over Jannik Sinner, Djokovic was hit a questionable hindrance call by chair umpire Richard Haigh for his grunt. In that case, Djokovic briefly protested with an “are you joking?” response.
"The hindrance [call] could have changed the course of the match," Djokovic said afterward. "I felt really nervous, probably the first time in my career something like this has happened."
Photo credit: Rob Newell/CameraSport