‘Novak Djokovic is the guy who wants to shoot Bambi in the face,’ says former US Open champion

‘Novak Djokovic is the guy who wants to shoot Bambi in the face,’ says former US Open champion

Novak Djokovic is seen as “the guy who wants to shoot Bambi,” says former US Open champion Andy Roddick after a difficult year off the court for the Serb.

Djokovic was ejected from the 2020 U.S. Open on Sunday after he accidentally hit a linesman in the throat with a replacement ball.

And Roddick says the incident will only worsen Djokovic’s reputation among tennis fans.

“The last six months for him have been a public relations debacle,” Roddick told CBS Sports Radio.

“At this stage of his career, because everyone has been so in love with Rafa [Nadal] and Roger [Federer] For so long, he has been a villain.

“He’s the guy who wants to shoot Bambi in the eyes of a lot of tennis fans.”

On the incident itself, Roddick believed that Novak Djokovic had been “super unfortunate”, but his reaction afterwards was far worse than what happened on the court.

“Super unfortunate, but he put himself in a position where he was inviting bad luck into the equation by doing that,” Roddick said. “There is no way out of it.

“The parts about it that bother me are the 20 minute conversation afterwards, the kind of not looking too concerned about the lady’s throat or whatever, and then skipping the press afterwards, that probably rubbed me more in the wrong way than real action. “