If Novak Djokovic ends up winning this French Open then he will owe a vote of thanks to the French line judge who may have saved him from being defaulted yesterday.
If it were not for the official’s fast reflexes in dodging a racket throw from the irascible Serb, weaving out of the way like a batsman avoiding a bouncer, the world No 1 could have been slung out of the tournament.
His quick action allowed Djokovic to complete a 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Tomas Berdych, which puts him through to today’s semi-final, in which he will meet the exciting young Austrian talent Dominic Thiem.
But the tournament favourite has come close to self-destruction with his on-court behaviour in the past month, suggesting the pressure of chasing his first Roland Garros title is gnawing away at him.
Keen to get the match over with, the incident happened early in the third set, when he threw away his racket and it ricocheted towards the official on the back fence.
While Djokovic clearly did not intend any harm, if he had hit the official full-on then he would most likely have been disqualified, as lack of intent is not a defence.
‘It’s obvious what I tried to do. I don’t understand your question. I threw a racket on the ground and it slipped and almost hit the line umpire. I was lucky there, that’s all,’ said a testy Djokovic afterwards.
‘I’m trying not to worry about it at all. I am aware that I have been lucky, and I apologised to people that have been in this particular situation with me and that could have been hurt by my racket. But it was never the intention. It was just some unfortunate bounce.’
Berdych confirmed afterwards that he saw it as a potential default situation. ‘If he would hit the ball boy (he meant line judge) it would be over,’ said the Czech.
Djokovic nurtures his statesmanlike image with almost the same zeal as Roger Federer, but his luck is going to run out if he carries on like this.
At the Italian Open in Rome last month he was involved in a similar incident during the final, when he bounced his racket and it flew up into the crowd, again not missing the line judge by much. Earlier in the event he also put his hand on the arm of umpire Carlos Bernardes as they argued over a mark on the court, which is completely against the rules.
So far there has been nothing more severe than a code violation but some players clearly feel there are double standards afoot.
Last week Nick Kyrgios complained about the Djokovic handling incident after he was given a code violation for a terse word with a ballboy. ‘I think we all know in this room if that was me that did that, it would be an absolute circus,’ he said.
Djokovic will probably have too much at this stage for Thiem, although the 22-year-old showed how good he is by coming back to beat Belgium’s David Goffin 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-1 in their quarter-final.
He is becoming one of the most feared clay-court players, with an overall record of 41-10 this year and is now assured of a top-10 spot in the world rankings when they are announced next week.
Serena Williams looked as if she was going into another Grand Slam meltdown before making today’s delayed women’s semi-final with an edgy 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win over world No 60 Yulia Putintseva.
The Kazakh pocket battleship had two break points at 4-4 in the second.
Williams will meet rank outsider, world No 58 Kiki Bertens of Holland, whose upset of eighth seed Timea Bacsinszky was her 12th win in a row. In the other semi-final, Australian Samantha Stosur will face Spain’s Garbine Muguruza.
Bertens said: ‘I am just going to go out there and have fun again and give my all,’ while calling her march to the semi-final ‘unbelievable . . . crazy.’
A hugely relieved Williams said: ‘I didn’t think I was going to win that but somehow I did.’ – Daily Mail