He was generally a step short of his usual electric footspeed, particularly during the first set, although his innate quality is such that Rune still needed to deliver an outstanding performance. He called the medical staff to the court after three games for a delivery of painkillers, and was still wearing a sleeve on the suspect right elbow that kept him out of Madrid. Remarkably, this has happened only once before in his storied career, and that was in 2005, soon after he had turned 18. The result means that he will go into Roland Garros without a clay-court semi-final behind him. “You’re an absolute joke,” Rune raged during the ensuing changeover.ĭjokovic was clearly stressed at his below-par performance in a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 defeat. Rune was outraged when Lahyani insisted that a return from Djokovic had landed on the baseline, leading to his first dropped service game of the match. Djokovic was not the only man to show hostility towards Lahyani. After that match, he had accused the British No 1 – who struck him on the left leg with a full-blooded smash – of “not fair play”.ĭjokovic’s press-conference interview also found him complaining about Norrie celebrating points too aggressively and calling a medical time-out at what seemed to be a tactical moment. Lahyani was using Italian first, and then English, but the drama surrounding the whole performance made it difficult for Djokovic to judge exactly how much time he had left.Īt least the players maintained a spirit of mutual respect throughout, in contrast to Djokovic’s stormy encounter with Norrie on Tuesday.
This might seem like an obscure detail, but officiating guidelines state that an umpire should start the 25-second shot clock immediately after announcing the score. While Lahyani is generally rated among the best umpires on the tour, he is also notorious for the flamboyant – and extremely loud – manner in which he announces the score. The outburst drew knowing nods from tennis fans on social media. “Are you acting here or what? Why do you call the score for 20 seconds?”
“What’s the drama of you waiting between English and Italian?” yelled Djokovic, who had just been warned for exceeding the allotted 25-second period between points. The outburst came 24 hours after Djokovic’s feisty run-in with British No 1 Cameron Norrie, and shortly before he was eliminated from the Italian Open by Denmark’s Holger Rune. Having received a time-violation warning from chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani, the world No 1 responded by accusing the Swede of behaving more like a thespian than a tennis official. Novak Djokovic’s fractious week in Rome continued with another on-court showdown.
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