{"id":430753,"date":"2026-01-26T12:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T12:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430753\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T12:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T12:02:14","slug":"andy-roddick-says-novak-djokovic-near-miss-was-worse-act-than-us-open-disqualification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430753\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Roddick says Novak Djokovic near miss was ‘worse’ act than US Open disqualification"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic<\/a> admitted he was \u2018lucky\u2019 to avoid a second qualification in a Grand Slam tournament after he fired a ball in anger that narrowly missed a ball kid during his third round win against Botic van de Zandschulp and now former world No 1 Andy Roddick has given his verdict on the incident.<\/p>\n

Djokovic was thrown out of the 2020 US Open after firing a ball that accidentally hit a lines person in the neck and he came close to repeating that nightmare as he lost his cool as van de Zandschulp made a miraculous recovery from injury when it appeared he was close to quitting early in the second set.<\/p>\n

There would have been no doubt about Djokovic\u2019s disqualification if he did hit the ball kid and after he refused to speak to the media following his US Open incident five-and-a-half years ago, he owned his mistake in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I apologise for that,\u201d said Djokovic in his press conference. \u201cThat was not necessary. In the heat of the moment, yeah, I was lucky there. And I\u2019m sorry for causing any distress to the ball kid or anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an honest confession from Djokovic and now former world No 1 Andy Roddick has suggested this near miss in Melbourne would have been an even more serious incident than his 2020 US Open elimination.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic \u2018divides opinion\u2019 once again with his fiery Australian Open victory<\/a><\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic apologises after avoiding Australian Open disqualification and gives injury update<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking on his Served podcast<\/a>, Roddick stepped carefully around the incident as he argued Djokovic\u2019s actions could not have been defended if the ball kid had been hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been petulant on the court,\u201d began Roddick. \u201cI could very easily have made a decision where hit someone on the court and got defaulted. Very, very, very easily.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got defaulted at the US Open for doing exactly the same thing. The one at the Australian Open was way worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the US Open, he hit it backwards and it\u2019s a one in a million shot that it hits someone in the throat. I\u2019ve done what he did at the US Open a thousand times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one, where he pulls it and slaps it and it hits a ball kid, that would have been worse to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put yourself in a position to have a judgement levied on you.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery unlucky at the US Open. Like, it wasn\u2019t as if it was full of malice. I don\u2019t think there was malice here, but was it was regrettable and stupid. Yes. He got lucky here, 100 per-cent, as he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was stunned watching it, but I\u2019m glad he has not been kicked out of the tournament. That would have been an instant default. No umpire would not default him for hitting the side ball kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Roddick went on to praise Djokovic for accepting responsibility for his near miss in Melbourne, which was a different approach to his US Open disqualification, where he left Flushing Meadows without speaking to the media or issuing an apology for his actions.<\/p>\n

This near miss and the withdrawal of Jakub Mensik<\/a> due to injury mean the pieces of Djokovic\u2019s Australian Open jigsaw may be falling into place, as he looks to win a 25th Grand Slam title that would be a final crowning moment in his glorious career.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic \u2018very lucky\u2019 to escape Australian Open disqualification for \u2018violent gesture\u2019 \u2013 tennis great<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic admitted he was \u2018lucky\u2019 to avoid a second qualification in a Grand Slam tournament after he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-430753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}