‘You guys can’t touch me’: Djokovic’s ‘disrespect’ outburst before Demon clash

Maybe the centre court spectators were saluting Novak Djokovic’s opponent by saying his name. Maybe they were booing Djokovic, trying to rattle him. The 24-time grand slam tournament champion was sure it was the latter – and let everyone know he was not happy about it.

Djokovic easily beat 15th-seed Holger Rune 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in just over two hours on Monday night (Tuesday AEST) to book a Wimbledon quarter-final clash with Alex de Minaur, then sent a message to the fans he thought were against him.

Rune’s supporters at tournaments often stretch out his last name, saying, “Ruuuune!” – which sounds similar to, “Booooo!” – and that happened again against Djokovic.

During his on-court post-match interview, the Serbian spoke briefly about the match, but then veered into a discussion about people in the stands.

“To all the fans that have respect and that stayed here tonight: thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate it. And to all those people that have chosen to disrespect the player – in this case, me – have a goooood night. Gooooood night. Gooooood night. Very gooooood night,” he said, stretching out the “Os” in “good” so they sounded like “boo”.

The interviewer tried to dissuade Djokovic from thinking some fans were taunting him.

“They were. They were. They were. I don’t accept it. I know they were cheering for Rune. But that’s an excuse to also boo,” Djokovic said. “Listen, I’ve been on the tour for more than 20 years. So trust me, I know all the tricks. I know how it works.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s OK. I focus on the respectful people, that have respect, that paid [for] a ticket to watch tonight – and love tennis. And love tennis. And appreciate the players and the effort that the players put in here.”