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No Fear No Favour

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic disqualified from US Open after hitting an official with a ball!

Byline by – Vinayak Heliwal

World Number one Serbian Tennis Star Novak Djokovic was sensationally disqualified in the US Open after accidentally striking a line judge with a ball during his men’s singles match against Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain at the 2020 US Open on Sunday.

Novak Djokovic was becoming frustrated after losing three set points in the first set of his fourth-round match against Spain’s Carreno Busta and accidentally hit a ball in the direction of the female official.The ball struck her in the throat and she could be heard gasping.

With the line judge screaming out in pain as she fell to the ground, a horrified Djokovic ran over to her and apologized.

Tournament referee Soeren Friemel then came out on to the Arthur Ashe Stadium and spoke with the chair umpire Aurelie Tourte and Andreas Egli and had a 10 minutes long discussion with the 33-year-old, a three-time former US champion.

After 10 minutes of discussion and pleading, the tournament referee and umpire declared that Carreno Busta had won by default.As Grand Slam rules states that the “Players shall not at any time physically abuse any official, opponent, spectator or another person within the precincts of the tournament site”

Serbian Tennis Star then apologized on Instagram,stating that the whole situation has left him sad and empty.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE0AzAOH2cp/?igshid=1738yv7uq0kti

It was a shocking incident for the tournament’s favorite as it also brought an end to his 26-0 winning streak since the start of the year, in bizarre circumstances.

The USTA issued a statement and said that Djokovic would lose all the ranking points earned from the event and will be fined an amount of $250,000 .

Novak Djokovic is one of the few players to have defaulted from a Grand Slam tournament ever since John McEnroe was infamously booted out of the 1990 Australian Open.

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