Novak Djokovic was angry with the crowd of the audience in the quarterfinals of the US Open against Taylor Fritz, but the referee was cold at the complaints of the Serbia star.
Djokovic's frustration was quickly aside by the referee when the world's No. 1 tennis player complained about the atmosphere at the Arthur Ashe yard in the victory over Fritz. In the quarterfinals against the host player, Djokovic kept confronting the fans. He even accepted “the role of a villain”, when he saw the wind kiss and signaled silent every time he scored in set 2.
Djokovic is no stranger to the controversy at Flushing Meadows, where he was eliminated in 2020 for improper behavior. In Set 3, the shouting “trying to Taylor” sounded between the ball, and the enthusiastic cheering for the 27 -year -old player, making Djokovic, who is looking at the 25th Grand Slam title, more and more uncomfortable.
Serbian player angrily walked towards the referee, asking him to intervene when he was about to serve. After a brief explanation that he had issued a standard notice before each serve of both players, the referee only responded to Djokovic with a harsh sentence: “It will not help, Novak”.
Initially, the audience was somewhat divided when both Djokovic and Fritz, but later, the American player pulled more support. The cheers for each point of Fritz's score were more resounding, while Djokovic, although at first showed interest in the bad guy, began to decline.
That is exactly what Fritz expected, in the effort to conquer the first Grand Slam title. After the victory in the fourth round against Tomas Machac, when asked about other American players who were soon eliminated, Fritz admitted that it helped him become the only hope and also the focus of cheering.
“I mean, maybe it is an advantage for me,” Fritz shared. “Hopefully the audience will now support me, because I am the last American.”
However, Djokovic maintained his stubbornness and extended the perfect confrontation achievement with Fritz to 11 winning matches, through which the 14th time won tickets to the US Open semi -finals in the illustrious career. The 38-year-old player rescued 10/11 Break-Point faced and made the No. 4 seed stalemate in key moments.
Fritz promptly held hope by saving two match-point, but at the third opportunity that Djokovic created, he made a double serve mistake, helping the opponent close the victory of 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
After the battle, Djokovic was calm and praised for Fritz: “This is an extremely intense match, and anyone who can really win. I think most of the time of Set 2 and Set 3, he is a better player.”
Djokovic will face Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open semi -final on September 5.