Picture Credit: Twitter
Novak Djokovic, the 22-time Grand Slam singles champion was in the midst of a chaotic day at the Italian Open in Rome earlier today. The Serbian was on camera tearing into the chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani for score calls in both English and Italian languages for 20 seconds, while implying that it is nothing more than time wasting.
The moment occurred during the third set of an enthralling tennis match between Novak Djokovic and Holger Rune in the quarter final of the Italian Open. On serve, when the Serbian was down 2-0 and 30-15, he suddenly went to the Swedish chair umpire and literally scolded him for point announcements in English and Italian, thus giving him less time to concentrate on the next point.
Djokovic was quoted as saying to chair umpire Lahyani, “What’s the drama of waiting between English & Italian (to call the score)? Are you acting here or what?” When the chair umpire told him this is how we will do, he quickly fired back and said, “Why do you call the scores for 20 seconds? Just call it the score, for god sake.”
Watch the video here:
Notably, the world number one tennis player Novak Djokovic ended up losing the quarter-final match in the Italian Open to Holger Rune by 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. During this pulsating encounter, both players had taken a lengthy time out for treatment from physio as the rain caused a long break in play.
