In one of the most bizarre scenes we’ve ever seen at a tennis Grand Slam, No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic was defaulted in the first set of his fourth-round match on Sunday when he struck a ball that inadvertently hit a line judge.
Djokovic, who was undefeated at 26-0 this season and the clear favorite to win what could have been his 18th Grand Slam title, was trailing Pablo Carreño Busta and was clearly frustrated on the court. Earlier in the match, Djokovic hit a ball off the wall in anger.
The moment occurred just after Djokovic’s serve had been broken. He turned and hit one ball to a line judge in the corner, and then hit ball another that struck a judge. Djokovic put his hands up and approached the judge to make it clear that he did not intentionally hit her.
Djokovic disqualified for this…. pic.twitter.com/8yI3Oj5bAY
— Stephen Watson (@winkerwatson1) September 6, 2020
Djokovic tried to plead his case to officials, suggesting a possible game penalty or set penalty, but was defaulted instead, knocking him out of the U.S. Open.
The moment that #1 Novak Djokovic knew that his #USOpen and his undefeated 2020 season were over. pic.twitter.com/uwd5fbXKb1
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) September 6, 2020
