Of all the people, a Swiss made Djokovic-Aus: Serbs smell a conspiracy

Moments after Novak Djokovic throws a ball at the neck of a linesman, two men enter the field and tell the Serb that the tournament is over for him. One of them is the Swiss supervisor Andreas Egli.

André “Andy” Egli has 80 international football matches under his belt for Switzerland. So what does tennis have to do with tennis? Nothing. His name is (almost) the same as the man who assures Sunday night that Novak Djokovic has to pack his seven things after the round of 16. Not because a player was better than the world number 1, but because Djokovic is disqualified for indiscipline.

The 56-year-old Swiss is only known to connoisseurs. Because he’s rarely the center of attention, only when the going gets tough. If something has happened on the court that the chair umpire cannot or does not want to decide. As supervisor, Andreas Egli is in control of all decisions. So he, along with tournament referee Sören Friemel, has to make it clear to Djokovic on Sunday that he will be kicked out of the US Open.

The rule does not allow for any other decision: if a player injures an official, an opponent, a spectator or any other person on the tournament site, he will be excluded, regardless of his intention. If Egli had allowed grace to prevail, he would have had to endure the accusation of having given the world’s number one a star bonus.

Djokovic himself suggested an even lighter penalty to the referees. You can punish me with a game. Or with a phrase. There are many options, ”he told Friemel, arguing that the linesman was fine and that he did not have to go to the hospital.

But Egli and Friemel act strictly. And to the right. Even if many Djokovic fans don’t want to admit it. On social media, the Swiss are supposed to be biased. He wanted to prevent Djokovic from getting close to Roger Federer’s record of 20 wins with his 18th Grand Slam title.

And the Serbian media also suspects a conspiracy. Roger Federer would not have been disqualified. This is proof that Djokovic does not receive the same treatment. The Swiss met a boy in Melbourne in 2009 and everyone laughed, ”writes the“ Kurir ”. The headlines of the newspaper “Informer”: “A terrible injustice”.

Friemel later made it clear in a virtual media round that no other decision could have been made. “Excluding a player from a Grand Slam tournament is an important and very difficult decision,” explains the tournament referee. “It doesn’t matter if he’s in the center of the court, if he’s number 1 or some other player on another court. You just have to do the right thing. “

Even if it wasn’t on purpose, the referees would have had no other choice, said the German: “There are two factors: the action and the result. And the act, even unintentionally, with the result that the linesman is beaten and injured is the essential factor in this decision-making process. “