Novak Djokovic, the 23-time Grand Slam winner, has been fined heavily for smashing his racquet against the net post during the recently concluded Wimbledon 2023 final against Carlos Alcaraz.
The incident happened in the fifth set of his defeat to the 20-year-old Spaniard on Sunday when Djokovic failed to break Alcaraz’s serve and subsequently lost his own service game. Djokovic then showed his frustration by forcefully smashing his racket against one of the wooden net poles, leaving a dent on it following which umpire Fergus Murphy issued him a warning for a code violation.
Due to his actions, a fine of £6,117 was issued to the seven-time Wimbledon champion and the money will be deducted from his runner-up cheque of 1.175 million pounds.
Coming to the affair, World number one Alcaraz took full advantage of the break to seal a 1-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-1 3-6 6-4 victory after four hours and 42 minutes at the All England Club which also denied Djokovic a 24th grand slam title and also ended his unbeaten run at the Centre Court.
Notably during Sunday’s final, Djokovic was twice handed a code violation as the first code violation came after the shot clock ran down to zero before Djokovic hit his service while the second came after he fell down by a break in the fifth set and violently destroyed his racket.
After the match, when Djokovic was asked about his two code violations he said: “there’s no much to talk about that. Second one (his second code violation) was frustration. I had break points in the second game. Yeah, just tough, tough couple of points.”