Back to top

Aussie Alex de Minaur suffered a brutal loss against Serbian Novak Djokovic in the fourth round of the 2023 Australian Open. Novak won the pass to the quarter-finals and shocked the tennis world. Recently, he has been talking about a severe hamstring injury. However, his brilliant performance on the court has raised doubts about the credibility of the injury. In his post-match interview, De Minaur was asked about his stance on this debacle.

The Australian player did not reply directly but hinted at the allegations claiming Djokovic is faking the injury. According to Alex, Djokovic’s hamstring looked “good.” He also made sarcastic comments during his reply, to which the tennis community has reacted on Twitter. The adverse reactions to this comment from Djokovic’s fans and the support for this comment from the other part of the tennis community have made this issue more confusing than ever.

Alex De Minaur fans will not let Novak Djokovic live it down

In a tweet by “Olly_Tennis_,” fans have not been shy at all to express their candid opinions about Djokovic’s injury.

While some have called Alex a sore loser, most comments side with him, accusing Nole of faking the hamstring injury since Adelaide.

De Minaur on Novak’s hamstring:

“I think everyone’s kind of seeing what’s been happening over the couple of weeks. It’s the only thing everyone’s been talking about. Either I’m not a good enough tennis player to expose that, or it looked good to me”

🇦🇺

— Olly 🎾🇬🇧 (@Olly_Tennis_) January 23, 2023

Some tennis fans have questioned the credibility of the people who thought that Novak’s injury was real. In their opinion, these people must be new to tennis.

Did people really think that was a real injury??

— enfant terrible. (@nemisixx) January 23, 2023

ppl believed he was genuinely injured? lololol. are they new tennis heads? https://t.co/kkuld6CCwy

— C ⁸⁸⁸ (@thediscomonkey) January 23, 2023

SHAME HIM ALEX https://t.co/y6P9w1p1Jb

— Silvi 🌷 (@eritropoietina_) January 23, 2023

Fans have put their reactions as bluntly as possible about Novak’s injury. Some have also resorted to derogatory language against World No 5.

Yup! Hamstring my ass!

— 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈Tennis Mobes #Labour 🌹🇬🇧 (@tennismobes) January 23, 2023

None of this is shocking or surprising! Sadly this universe rewards c*nts like djk! https://t.co/zlFa6FRkEt

— RogerFedererStanForever❤️🥺 (@SampadaMoghe) January 23, 2023

Fans have expressed their comments through sarcasm too. A fan pointed out that if Nole’s injury is as bad as he claims, why haven’t the talks of his retirement come along already?

I’m surprised no one asked him if he was retiring from the match for the ‘injury’

— aRNi (@Arni_Abd) January 23, 2023

Another tennis enthusiast is sure that if a newbie watched Nole’s performance today, they would have said he is perfectly fine judging by his brilliant performance.

Anyone who hasn’t watched tennis recently and then watched tonight, could tell Nole’s injury is fake. I tried to give him benefit of the doubt. But he doesn’t deserve. https://t.co/0vg0jQ8Ccc

— Tahseen Kamal, Ph.D. (ANU), FHEA (@tkamal16) January 23, 2023

On the other hand, Djokovic fans have shown their loyalty and belief in their idol and defended him, calling Alex the sore loser.

This mouse is bitter af. https://t.co/f5ITjeKwXb

— ً (@ashishxx__) January 23, 2023

Spot on you are an absolute fraud to the point you get spanked by an old crippled man in front of your own audience😹😹😹 https://t.co/OCEbNgldCp

— GoldinTold 🇦🇷🇹🇷 (@GoldinTold) January 23, 2023

Whatever the situation may be, the tennis world sure has found a raging controversy to hype up the 2023 Australian Open more than ever!

Boris Becker on Djokovic’s injury

Recently, Djokovic’s former coach Boris Becker spoke to Eurosport about the Serb’s injury. In Becker’s opinion, there is nothing fake about it. Having coached Djokovic for three years, he claims that Novak would never lie about something.

He even went so far as to state how Novak’s performance is now based on priority shots rather than accumulating both small and big points. Due to the injury, as Becker claims, Novak is giving his all for the scoring shots and taking it easy on the minor ones.

What do you think? Is Djokovic faking his injury to lull his opponents into a false sense of security on the court?

Once ridiculed as a Grand Slam underachiever, today, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka is officially a Grand Slam champion, defeating Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in an exciting 2023 Australian Open women’s final.

With her win, Aryna moves up to the World No. 2 spot, behind Polish player Iga Swiatek, and pockets a little over $2 million (USD).

In her post-match presser, Aryna said:

“It’s tough to explain what I’m feeling right now – I’m just super happy and proud. [This] is the best day of my life.”

“I think it’s even more enjoyable, I would say, after all those tough matches [in the past]. I really feel right now that I needed those tough losses to kind of understand myself a little bit better.

“It was like a preparation for me. I actually feel happy that I lost those matches, so I can be a different player and just a different Aryna, you know?”

In the final game, the Belarusian needed just four championship points to clinch the biggest win of her life, and reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina made her work hard for every one of them.

An emotional Sabalenka fell to the court in disbelief as Elena’s last forehand sailed long, shedding tears of joy as the moment finally sunk in.

Aryna had already been improving her grand slam reputation by making it into three semi-finals since the 2022 Australian Open, where she developed an extreme case of the serving “yips,” which eventually forced her out of the tournament in the round of 16.

In order to put that nightmare behind her, the 24-year-old did some self-reflection. She figured out that to be successful, she needed to reel in the emotions that had gotten the better of her so many times in the past.

“I always had this weird feeling that when people would come to me and ask for [my] signature; I would be like, ‘Why are you asking for signature? I’m nobody. I’m a player. I don’t have a grand slam and all this stuff’,” Sabalenka said.

“I just changed how I feel [and] I started [to] respect myself more. I started to understand that actually I’m here because I work so hard and I’m actually good player.

“Just having this understanding that I’m a good player [has helped me] handle a lot of emotions, a lot of things on court. Every time I had a tough moment on court; I was just reminding myself that I’m good enough to handle all this.”

Saturday night’s match encapsulated that transformation perfectly as she fought back the early nerves and, again, a faulty serve.

The Belarusian swallowed her disappointment of losing the first set, then delivered two sets of sustained power-hitting under relentless pressure. If hitting big failed her on one point, she went even bigger again on the next.

The old Sabalenka would often let her emotions negatively dictate her performances. However, the new and improved Belarusian used her surplus power, aggression, and crazy angles to shake things up. Just as impressive was the way she maintained intensity without losing composure.

It was no surprise to me that Aryna battled back from being a set down to defeat Elena Rybakina, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

You can see the entire interview here: