Djokovic Finally Gets Warned For Excessive Ball Bouncing
Friday, March 28th, 2008
Finally.
Up 2-0 in the third set against Kevin Anderson, Novak Djokovic was warned by the chair umpire for excessive ball bouncing before he served. It certainly had an effect on Djokovic and though he won the next point, he lost the next 13 en route to being upset. Even the crowd turned on Djokovic, jeering him in the third set.
“I didn’t focus myself in that moment,” Djokovic said. “But, you know, that’s OK. It’s all part of the game.”
This has been an issue with players for a long time. The tighter the situation in the match, the more ball bounces Djokovic seems to take. It will be interesting to see how Djokovic responds to this as now that one umpire took action, more will have to follow or else opposing players will speak up even more.
A similar incident happened at Wimbledon in 1992 when Monica Seles was constantly ridiculed for her loud grunting. To stop the negative press, Seles made an effort to stop the grunting and it obviously effected her play and she lost the title to Steffi Graf in a lopsided match, losing 6-2, 6-1.