ATP Cup: Referee interrupts match between Djokovic and Shapovalov
The ATP Cup in Australia is emotional. Not only did one or the other player go through their nerves the last few days, but the audience is also standing on the court and wants to carry their own nation into the next round. Sometimes the arc of fairness is spanned.
by Felix Lang
last edit: Jan 10, 2020, 07:35 pm
Bernardes interrupts the quarter-finals and addresses the audience
Novak Djokov ic and Denis Shapovalov met in the quarter-finals of the ATP Cup. While the Serbian fans celebrated the Djoker with enthusiasm and were clearly outnumbered, the emotions turned more and more into unsportsmanlike style. In the meantime, the Serbian fans tried to get the Canadians out of the game flow with interruptions and noises.
After the audience could not be brought to rest by the usual requests, it was too much Carlos Bernardes and he stopped the match for a clear announcement to the audience. See for yourself!
"The most important thing between all of us is respect"
"One moment please, this is a tennis game. The most important thing between all of us is respect. If you do something like that, whether against Canadians or Serbs, that's not what we want. Please! Respect for both players!" , Bernardes addressed the audience.
After the subsequent rally was still clearly disturbed, he pushed after: "If you don't want to see tennis, just go home instead of disturbing the people who want to watch tennis here!"
The Djoker ultimately won the competitive match 4: 6, 6: 1, 7: 6 (4) and the Serbs were celebrated by the audience.