Novak Djokovic paused his match to thank a fan who told the raucous Australian Open crowd to 'shut up'
- Novak Djokovic earned a four-set victory in the second round of the Australian Open on Thursday.
- Midway through his match, the tennis superstar paused to interact with the raucous crowd.
They don't call him "The Joker" for nothing.
Novak Djokovic lived up to the nickname with one cheeky crowd interaction during his second-round match at the 2023 Australian Open Thursday.
The raucous audience at Rod Laver Arena became increasingly irritating to the 21-time Grand Slam champion throughout his bout against French qualifier Enzo Couacaud. So at one point mid-match, as Djokovic prepared to serve and appeared frustrated by the excess noise, one bold fan loudly told a particularly annoying heckler to "Shut up!"
The two words stopped Djokovic in his tracks.
"Thank you!" he said, looking up into the stands with a smile.
The whole arena cracked up.
But the interruptions from the crowd weren't all funny to the Serbian superstar. At one point, Djokovic approached the chair umpire to single out a fan who he later explained was "provoking me and saying things that were not very respectful, at all."
"Most of the people, the supermajority of people here... is always respectful," he said in his post-match press conference. "They're great fans and pay the ticket to watch you, so I respect that, and that's sport. Some people like you more, cheer for you, some don't, and it's not something that I would say I have a problem with."
"What I have a problem with is when somebody's crossing the line, numerous times," he added. "From the very beginning, [it was] guys who were under the influence of alcohol — it was obvious. And I was grabbing my towel very close to them."
Djokovic still earned a relatively straightforward 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-0 victory over Couacaud. But his message during his post-match press conference was clear: Players shouldn't "be put in a position where we always have to react."
Next up for Djokovic is a third-round matchup against world No. 28 Grigor Dimitrov on Friday.