Opinion | Novak Djokovic ‘fans’ court their own notoriety in vile abuse of blameless line judge
- Death threats head vile social media abuse for US Open official hit with tennis ball from star
- World No 1’s call for his online army to show their support for victim falls on deaf ears
Just when you think you cannot be surprised any more by 2020, along comes social media to plumb new depths. Well done, guys, didn’t know you had it in you.
People purporting to be fans of Serbia’s world No 1 men’s tennis player Novak Djokovic have sent death threats and other vile abuse to a woman who got hit in the throat with a ball from his racquet while she was doing her job.
How has it come to this that someone who is the victim is pilloried as a pariah, referred to as “Tennis Karen”, mocked for overreacting, sent abuse over her dead son and death threats of her own?
Novak Djokovic, 26-0 for the year and in a US Open field where there was not one other grand slam winner, had a moment of madness, hitting a ball at the back wall in frustration and accidentally hitting line judge Laura Clark in the throat.
His was a mistake, not malice, but the line judge did nothing wrong whatsoever. Understandably, she was not looking out for errant balls flying at her with the game over and Djokovic about to change ends. Anyone blaming her is way off the mark and over the line.
