Andy Roddick 'so scared' of Novak Djokovic fans after calling for Serb to be punished
Andy Roddick claimed that Novak Djokovic deserved to be warned for his behaviour.
Andy Roddick revealed that he was “so scared” of facing the wrath of Novak Djokovic’s fans on social media. It comes as the American called for the world No. 1 to be punished after screaming “shut the f*** up” at a spectator during the Monte-Carlo Masters.
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Djokovic reached the semi-final in Monte Carlo last week, matching his best result of the season so far. Although he praised the Serb's run, he wasn't best pleased with his behaviour - claiming that the 36-year-old should have received a warning for swearing at a member of the crowd during his defeat to Casper Ruud.
Djokovic turned and roared “shut the f*** up” after the spectator called his ball out at the end of a rally and didn’t receive a code violation but the umpire reminded the fans not to interrupt. After Holger Rune received a warning when he made a ‘blah-blah’ gesture while being booed for a time violation, Roddick argued that Djokovic deserved a code violation.
Speaking on his Served podcast, the 2003 US Open winner said: “If [Holger] Rune gets in trouble for making balloon animals with his hands, then it gets a warning. Then if someone looks at the crowd and in two different languages in the same sentence, says, shut the f***up. I feel like that should warrant a warning.”
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His co-host asked who swore at the crowd but Roddick was seemingly scared to call Djokovic out, knowing he would face the wrath of the world No. 1’s fans on social media. "Greatest male tennis player of all time. Don't,” a nervous Roddick replied. The American still stood by his statement, explaining that Djokovic’s fans couldn’t argue with the rules.
He continued: “And so I'm literally like, I don't know what to tell a fan base if I said he should get a warning because he told the crowd loudly, clearly to shut the f*** up. They're like, I don't care if he cusses. I'm like, that's fine. But like, that's also the rule. Pecedent's been set for 50 years.
“Because you don't like the rule, he shouldn't have been punished? I don't understand. It's illogical. It's nuts. It's the fact that that was the thing that got it going this week. Oh, God, it's so annoying. Anyways, Novak is unbelievable. But I'm trying to cover it because I'm scared of them.”
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Roddick also shared his fear of the 24-time Major winner’s fans when he assessed Djokovic’s run in Monte Carlo. “I think it was a good week for Novak. He got his paces in. You have to be a certain kind of player for people to criticise a semi-final showing in the first clay court tournament of the year when you’ve only played two other events, and you beat a top 10 player along the way,” he explained.
“No other player on early would get criticism for that so we’re going to leave that there. It was a little strange. He was like, labouring. His breath looked like it was short, especially against De Minaur. It was interesting. You feel like he’s still trying to find his match fitness which is normal. It’s not a criticism.”
And he made sure to clarify that he wasn’t trying to berate Djokovic, explaining that the world No. 1’s fans would have an issue with his comments. “And I’m so scared of Nole’s Twitter people. I say something like, he was breathing heavily. And even though he was breathing heavily they’ll be like, f*** you,” he added.
“I just eat s*** from them all the time. I’m effusive going through how brilliant he is. I think I was the first to say that he was the greatest before it was generally accepted. But you can’t win them all. It’s not what we’re trying to do here.”
