{"id":193740,"date":"2026-03-16T17:28:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193740\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T17:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:28:19","slug":"miami-open-boss-claps-back-after-novak-djokovic-fans-slam-controversial-graphic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193740\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Open boss claps back after Novak Djokovic fans slam controversial graphic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Djokovic withdraws from Miami Open after shoulder injury, sparking social media backlash<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Miami Open is about to get underway following the Indian Wells Open, but it\u2019s already dealing with a major setback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Novak Djokovic has pulled out of the tournament because of a shoulder injury. The decision came after his run at Indian Wells, the first part of the Sunshine Double.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Djokovic reached the fourth round in singles before losing to Jack Draper in three sets. He also took part in doubles at Indian Wells, teaming up with Stefanos Tsitsipas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His withdrawal led to some controversy on social media, with tournament director James Blake facing questions about how the situation was handled.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Photo by Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/acbaa652e224e38dd4fdc3451e061f27.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo by Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>James Blake defends Miami Open graphic after fan criticism<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Miami Open\u2019s official X account shared a graphic showing the tournament\u2019s past seven champions, which included Jakub Mensik, Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev, Carlos Alcaraz, Hubert Hurkacz, Roger Federer and John Isner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But a tennis fan reacted to the post by saying: \u201cThis is astonishing. The record-breaking 6x @MiamiOpen champion @DjokerNole has been omitted from this wall of champions post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis is blatant propaganda @JRBlake, do better please.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Blake responded directly: \u201cIt\u2019s the last seven years of champions in order. Nobody was omitted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When was Novak Djokovic\u2019s last Miami Open win?<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Djokovic\u2019s most recent title at the Miami Open came in 2016, capping off a run of three straight wins at the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He also lifted the trophy in 2014 and 2015, and then beat Kei Nishikori in the 2016 final to secure the Sunshine Double for a record fourth time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He didn\u2019t lose a set all tournament and only played one tiebreak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Since then, he\u2019s only entered the Miami Open three times. His most recent showing was a runner-up finish, with his last appearance coming in 2023, when he lost to Jakub Mensik in straight sets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Djokovic withdraws from Miami Open after shoulder injury, sparking social media backlash The Miami Open is about to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[90079,89756,90083,90081,90080,123,125,124,89755,90082],"class_list":["post-193740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-djokovic","tag-indian-wells","tag-jack-draper","tag-jakub-mensik","tag-james-blake","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-open","tag-stefanos-tsitsipas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}